The kid
by Deisel
Summary: Abe finds out he has a teenage son,that was created with out him knowing and was taken in by another family, let the fun begin
1. Chapter 1

Abandoned warehouse

Location unknown

Dr. Whitman sat at his desk in deep thought. Tonight, after many years, he would finally put his plan into action. It had taken him quite some years to find the perfect woman to help him carry out his latest experiment. The woman was in prime health and the perfect age to bear a child.

He stood and brushed off his dark clothing and pulled the ski mask down over his face, to be sure no one would know it was him. His car, too, was in disguise with a new paint job and different number plates. He reached his car and got in before he drove to where he knew the young woman would be.

The target was Louise Defone, who had just finished her shift at a local diner. Dr. Whitman watched as she bid her co-workers good night and began her short walk home. The doctor followed quietly behind Louise, being careful to stay in the shadows. He quickened his pace as she walked closer to where he had parked his car. Dr. Whitman broke into a sprint and when he finally reached Louise he grabbed her from behind. Louise struggled against his grip as he forced her into the trunk of his car. Once he had her completely in the boot, Dr. Whitman shut the lid with a loud _THUMP _before he ran around to the driver's seat and he started the car started with a roar.

Inside the boot, Louise thrashed around wildly trying to break free; in her desperation she hit her head against the roof of trunk, knocking her out.

Louise awoke, hoping that she'd dreamt the adduction. However, she opened her eyes to find herself strapped down to a cold medical table. She glanced around wildly, her breath coming out in raspy gasps. As she looked around the man who kidnapped her came into view. He had a doctor's mask on and was wearing latex gloves. Louise felt her heart thumping in her chest. She tried to scream but found she couldn't make a sound; in her fear her throat had closed. The man was wheeling over a tray, with what seemed to be surgical instruments rattling away on top. "You're gonna make me famous," the unknown man whispered in her ear. He slid a mask over Louise's nose and mouth. She tried not breathe in the gases but even as she struggled, the world around her went fuzzy and she felt herself slip into unconsciousness.

When Louise awoke a few hours later, she winced as she felt a slight ache in her left side. The man from earlier was still there, watching her. It was like she was in some kind of bad horror movie. Finally her throat unclenched enough for her to speak. "W-what do you want with me?" She asked

The man came closer and sat down on a stool that was a few feet away from her bed. "You, my dear, are going to be part of a very important experiment."

"E-experiment?" she repeated, her voice quivering.

"You see, many years ago the US military created two soldiers. They were the most advanced and top secret development the military ever created, and after many years of success they decided to make a second generation soldier, one who looked more human, but could still function the same as the first generation. I was to be part of the team chosen to make the second generation, but there was a problem and the program was shutdown." The doctor broke out into a small smile. "That's where you come in. I have managed to impregnate you with DNA from one of the first generation soldiers and in about nine months we shall see if our little experiment has worked." He told her smiling proudly as she stared at his in horror. _This can't be happening!_

Nine months later

Louise screamed as she felt another contraction rip through her already exhausted body. The labour had been long and intense.

"That's it. One more push should do it," Dr Whitman encouraged. After so long he was eager to see his creation. Louise pushed with the last of her strength, she let out one final blood curdling scream before her body gave up.

Dr Whitman quickly snatched the child away from its mother and busied himself cleaning the newborn experimental child. After he had cleaned the child, was he was startled to find that the experiment looked nothing like he had planned. His skin was blue; he had a small set of gills on each side of his neck, and tiny webbed hands and feet. Whitman was determined not to see his experiment fail, he ran every test he could on the child, however all that the tests proved was that the experiment was nothing more than a healthy, if not weird looking baby boy.

Whitman left the child to go and check on the mother only to find she had passed away. In a panic, he decided that he had to get rid of her body as well as the crime against nature he had created. He walked back to where he had left the baby intent on killing the poor child. He looked down at the helpless infant as he wrapped his hands around the baby's tiny throat and began to squeeze. Instantly, the child began squirm and gasp for air. Whitman believed that the child could also be using his gills to breathe, so he took a knife from one of the nearby benches and cut a long line all the way down the gills on the right side of the baby's neck. The gills didn't bleed so the doctor figured they didn't work. He went back to strangling the infant and after a short time the squirming stopped and the small body went limp. He had done it; he had killed his own creation. The doctor placed the baby's body in a garbage bag and decided to dump it in the river; he would dispose of the other body later. He got in his car and drove towards the river. Whitman was almost to the river when he noticed a car behind him, it seemed to be following him, and once again he panicked. He grabbed the bag with the experiment in it off the seat and wound down the window, as he turned around a sharp corner he threw the bag as hard as he could hopping it would make it into the trees on the side of the road. The bag landed in the middle of the road, the doctor's car screeched to a halt, Whitman got out picked up the bag and hurled it into the trees so it couldn't be seen from the road, quickly he got back into his car and sped off into the night.

Mike and Gail Howlett were having trouble getting their two year old daughter Kasey to sleep, so they had decided to take her for a drive by the river. They were about 20 minutes from the river when a car pulled out in front of them, it was strange to see another car out so late but they didn't pay it any mind and continued on their drive. They had just managed to get Kasey to sleep when something came flying out from the car in front of them. It landed in the middle of the road causing Mike to slam on the breaks, and this woke Kasey. She began to sniffle and Gail turned in her seat, hoping to shush her before she could start to cry again. They watched in silence as a man stepped out from the other car picked up what looked like a garbage bag. The man threw the bag into the trees that ran alongside the river. He then got back in his car and sped off.

"That was weird," said Gail, blinking at her husband.

Mike frowned. "Stay here, I'm gonna go check this out," Mike said as he climbed out of the car. he walked to where the bag had landed. Cautiously Mike approached the bag, he poked it gently with his foot, he heard soft wheezing and gurgling noises come from the bag. The noises soon turned into crying as Mike picked up the bag and carefully he opened it.

"What the- JESUS CHRIST! GAIL GET OVER HERE," he yelled over his shoulder. Gail jumped at Mike's yelling, she got out of the car just as he came running through the trees.

"What, what happened?" she asked

"You need to see this," he replied, pointing to where the child lay in the trees. Gail walked through the trees to where Mike had pointed leaving him with Kasey. As she got closer she could hear crying. Gail quickened her pace, when she got to where Mike had pointed she couldn't believe her eyes, she looked down at the helpless child lying on the ground. It was crying its little eyes out. She couldn't stand seeing any child in such obvious pain; carefully she picked up the baby.

Gail carried the infant back to the car so she could get a better look. When she could see the child properly she noticed, that the baby was a little boy and that he was blue. Gail looked over the baby they had found, he was tiny compared to other babies, he had deep blue skin with some darker patterns, however the one thing that Really drew Gail and Mike's attention was the small gills on each side of the boy's neck, the ones on the right side had a long cut down them. The baby started to shiver as a cool breeze blew.

"Oh, you poor darling," Gail said, as Mike handed her his jacket to wrap the small child in.

"Gail what should we do with him?" Mike asked, staring at the newborn.

"We can't leave him here," she replied

"We could take him to the hospital," Mike suggested

"No, we can't," Mike look at him. "You don't know what they'll do to him there, and he doesn't seem to be hurt badly," she told him.

"What about that cut on his neck?" Mike asked

"He's not bleeding and doesn't seem to be causing him too much trouble, other than that all he has is some scrapes and bruises," she said. Mike knew his wife had already made up her mind.

"You want to keep him don't you?" he asked, finally beginning to giving in.

Gail looked up at him with a wide smile, Mike knew her answer.

"Okay, we'll keep him; he looks like he could use a nice family," Mike said, taking the little bundle so Gail could get back in the car.

"Here you go little guy" Mike said handing the boy back to Gail, he then got in the driver's seat and they headed home.

When they got home, Mike put Kasey to bed and when he came back down he found Gail in the kitchen heating a bottle. They both went into the lounge room and sat down to try and feed the little baby. Gail put the tip of the bottle in the baby's tiny mouth; he instantly started to drink down the bottle.

He was drinking so fast that Gail was afraid he would choke. She figured he must have been using his gills to help himself breathe, because they kept fluttering. The gills in the right seemed to be slower; she guessed that it must have been from the damage caused by the cut. After he had finished the bottle they took him upstairs and gave him a bath, and dressed him in some of Kasey's old baby clothes. By the time all of that was done he was almost asleep in Gail's arms, they put him in Kasey's old crib and covered him with a blanket. They stood there watching the infant sleep.

"What should we name him?" Mike asked

"I think we should name him Ayden," she replied.

"Well then, welcome to the family Ayden," Mike whispered to his newly adopted son. They switched on the baby monitor, turned out the light and left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

****OK as usual i only own my characters all others are owned by who ever really owns them so lets just get on with the story.****

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><p><strong>Present day<strong>

Fifteen years have passed and Ayden is now fifteen. Kasey is now seventeen and they have a new sister, Sophie, who is eight. For most of his life Ayden has been home schooled, so not many people know about him.

"Come on, time to get up!" Gail chanted as she banged on each of her children's door. She and Mike had raised Ayden as their own since the night he had been cruelly thrown out the window of a moving car (a fact no one has ever told him.)

This morning was like any other. Kasey was the first to get up. She showered and, like any teenage girl, she took her time and made sure to use all the hot water. As captain of the swim team at her school, she needed to look her best for the division finals that were to be held at her school this afternoon. It was well known by her parents that, even though she loved her adopted younger brother, she still held a small amount of resentment towards him and would often use words like 'freak' and 'mutant retard' when talking about him with her friends.

Sophie was usually right behind her sister in getting ready for school, she however absolutely adored Ayden and never understood why her mother wouldn't let him go to school like her, he was smart enough and old enough. She loved it when he took her under the water in their pool and hated it that she couldn't have him meet her friends, it always amazed her mother that she never saw Ayden as most of the very few people who had met him she only saw a loving brother where others would see a monster.

As always Ayden was the last up since he was home schooled he could sleep a little later but that also meant he would be having a cold shower not that cold water bothered him, what bothered him was Kasey, she would take hours in the bathroom fixing her hair and other girly stuff which is wrong especially when he really needed to pee. Finally she let him in, after getting himself ready for the day he headed down to breakfast.

* * *

><p><strong>BPRD HQ kitchen same day<strong>

"I tell ya man, this guy eats almost as much as Red used to,"

"I know what ya mean. How can he eat this much and not be the size of a house," The two cooks agreed as the finished making what had to be the biggest order of bacon and eggs either had ever seen.

In his bedroom, Animal poked his head out from under the covers. Having smelt the bacon cooking three levels above, he quickly flew out of bed, got dressed and headed for the mess hall. Grace had insisted for him to use it for every meal.

When he got there he found Grace sitting at the table with a folder. "Okay, whatever happened, it wasn't me, I swear," he stated, looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"It's okay, it's not about you," Grace replied as Animal took his seat and waited for the food. For some reason she seemed to be fairly anxious but Animal put that out of his mind as the smell of bacon got closer and closer. '_Bacon, bacon. Yummy, yummy. BACON' _Animal began singing in his mind. He was starving (but then again he was always starving). The door began to open and Animal leaned forward in his chair how it opened to reveal his brother, Abe, instead of a mountain of delicious bacon. Animal rocked back in his chair, less than happy as he stared at Abe.

After enjoying his morning swim, Abe went in search of some breakfast. As he entered the mess hall he saw Grace and Animal sitting at the same table. Animal had his arms folded and he was glaring at him while Grace beckoned him over. "Ah, Abe, just the person I wanted to see. We need to talk," Something about Grace's tone made him slightly nervous. Grace's tone was usually reserved for when she was trying to sound nice when all she wanted to do was yell and scream. He took his seat across from his younger brother as their food was served.

Animal dove in, not waiting for the others. He piled his plate high with food and began to eat. Grace ignored his behaviour and began to elaborate on the folder that was causing her to be so tense. "Okay, this is fairly difficult to explain. Do either of you remember the name 'Whitman'?" Grace asked. The two men shook their heads "Well, he was the scientist who was put in charge of the second generation of 'Project Sapien',"

"Wasn't it shutdown after us?" Animal asked, wondering staring at her with an eyebrow raised.

"It was at first however, it seems Dr Whitman somehow managed to get Abe's DNA and he found a willing host."

"Host? Why in the world would he need a host? "Abe asked, feeling confused and nervous of where this was heading.

"Erm, it's kind of difficult to explain but-," she started, only to be interrupted by Abe

"Spit it out already," Abe pressed wanting to get this over with.

"Okay, well, you asked for it, Abe. You have a son,"

"WHAT?" Animal yelled as he began to choke and cough on his food. Abe sat there silently for a minute then he hit the floor with a loud '_THUMP' _as he fainted.

* * *

><p><strong>Thursday Morning<strong>

**_Howlett's Dining Room_**

Ayden was still upstairs when Gail was busy preparing Sophie's school lunch. She finished it quickly before taking the breakfast food into the dining room. Mike was sitting at the head of the table with Kasey sitting on the right and Sophie on the left.

"So, have you asked him?" Mike questioned as she took a seat next to Sophie and helped the youngest Howlett cut her food.

"No. I thought we could do it together," Gail replied happily, handing the knife and fork back to Sophie.

Moments later, Ayden entered the room and took his usual seat next to Kasey. To Ayden, today didn't seem any different to any other so he was slightly worried when Sophie hadn't tackled him as soon as he walked in the room.

Gail, none too gently, kicked her husband under the table to spur him into action. Mike cleared his throat before beginning calmly. "Ayden, your mother and I have been talking and -,"

"We're going to use you for medical research." Kasey finished.

"KASEY!" Both parents yelled simultaneously. "Now what your father is trying to say is we think that maybe, it would be better for you if you were around more people your own age, and we've decided that if you want to, maybe we could send you to school," Gail explained with a glare at her eldest daughter.

It took all of Ayden's will power not to leap across the table and kiss his parents. All his life Ayden had wanted to go to school.

"YAY! Ayden gets to go to school!" Sophie cheered as Ayden sat across from her in silence.

"So, what do you say? Do you want to go to school?" asked Gail, eager to hear Ayden's response.

"I say yes! I'd love to go to school," Ayden said excitedly, with a big grin on his face.

"Okay then, it's settled. I'll ring the school this morning and organise an interview with the principal," Gail announced, satisfied that she had made her adoptive son very happy.

After breakfast Mike took the two girls to school on his way to work while at home, Ayden went into the lounge room to do his study. Gail began to make arrangements to get him into school. By that afternoon, she had everything organised. Mike, Gail and Ayden were to meet the principal at nine the next morning. Ayden couldn't sleep that night as he lay awake that night imagining what it would be like to go actually go school and make friends.

The next morning Ayden was the first person up. He had showered and dressed before anyone else had awakened. He had even beaten Kasey to the shower.

The morning couldn't pass quick enough for Ayden. He was almost bouncing in his chair by the time it was time to leave. Ayden ran for the car, pushing past his parents on the way out the door. Like a hyperactive child, Ayden couldn't sit still. Kasey kept rolling her eyes at him but Sophie was enjoying mucking around with Ayden.

By the time they pulled up at the front, school had already started so Kasey and Sophie had to go straight to class. Mike (who had taken the day off), Gail and Ayden waited in the reception area for the principal to see them. As they waited the receptionist kept staring at Ayden, making him feel nervous and uncomfortable. "Mr. and Mrs. Howlett, Principal Woodworth will see you now." a short and round administration worker announced as she opened the door to the principal's office, allowing the family to enter the principal's office. Ayden got up and quickly followed his parents into the other room, feeling relieved to be away from the woman's judgemental stare. If there was one thing he hated it had to be when people stared at him, but he put the woman out of his mind as he walked into the small room.

Principal Woodworth was a short, gruff looking man but he had a kind heart. "Mr. and Mrs. Howlett I presume, and this must be Ayden," he greeted warmly, coming forward to shake their hands. Saying that Ayden was shocked was an understatement. Usually when people met him, they freaked out or tried to hurt him, but not this man. This man was greeting Ayden like he was normal. "Please, take a seat." Mr. Woodworth offered as he returned to his own seat. Mike and Gail sat in the chairs that were being offered. Ayden sat on the right side of Gail, holding her hand. Gail could tell he was nervous from the shaking of his hand. "So, if I understand correctly, you would like to enrol Ayden at this school," Mr. Woodworth said, looking at the tall, slender blue young man the couple had brought with them.

"Yes," Mike answered simply. "We would, but we'd also like to know he'd be safe here. You know, without any bullying."

"Bullying would be a problem considering the, erm, circumstances but we, that is the teachers and I, would ensure that Ayden would be well taken care of and if any bullying were to occur, then we would disciple the culprits to the best of our ability. In our brochure there's our policy on bullying." Mr. Woodworth explained, sweeping his hand in front of a booklet that had been propped up on the desk.

Gail smiled at the principal. "Our daughters go here and they've always seemed to like it here so we're sure Ayden would be fine but you do understand our concern." She patted Ayden's hand.

"Of course," The principal said, nodding. "And we will try our very best to ensure that Ayden would be very happy here as well."

Mike smiled as well. "What happens now?"

"We will need Ayden to pass a few tests first. Just to check whether he can keep up academically with the other students in the same grade. If he can pass them, then I don't see why he can't start on Monday," Mr. Woodworth explained before gathering up a large pile of papers from his drawer on the desk. Mr. Woodworth directed Ayden to another room with a single desk in the middle of the room. "If you'd like to take seat, you can begin the exams." Mr. Woodworth said, indicating to the desk. Ayden sat down and Mr. Woodworth placed the exams down in from of him. "You have an hour and half, just answer what you can." And with that, the principal swept from the room and Ayden bent over the papers to start the tests.

Mike and Gail waited in the reception area while Ayden sat his tests. After an hour and a half of anxious waiting, they were called back into Mr. Woodworth's office for the results.

"So, how'd he do?" Mike asked, as soon as he sat down.

"Well, actually, Ayden scored quite high marks on his tests." Mr. Woodworth smiled. "I think we would be glad to have Ayden at this school, he can start on Monday," Mr. Woodworth announced proudly standing up to shake Ayden's hand.


	3. Chapter 3

**Howlett's Home**

Ayden had been too busy readying himself for school to notice that the weekend was almost over. Sunday morning Ayden had awakened at his usual time; of course as always he had to almost bash the bathroom door down before Kasey would get out. After he had showered and dressed he went downstairs for breakfast, like he always did. Walking into the kitchen he became slightly confused. There was no one in the room except for his mother, who had a grin worthy of the Cheshire cat plastered across her face.

"Ma, why are you smiling like that?" Ayden asked warily, taking a piece of toast from the bench.

'Well, I thought that since you will be going out in public to attend school, then maybe you would like to come shopping with me?"

Gail stood there, seemly buzzing. She was hoping he would say yes. She knew how others saw Ayden and she hoped that by her being with him, perhaps people would realise he was no danger to society. However, Ayden didn't even think before saying yes, he had never been shopping before; usually his mother was the one buying his clothes. The thought of him meeting new people and getting to choose his own clothes had him practically dragging his mother to the car.

"Okay, OKAY! Slow down, mister. The mall's not going to disappear!" laughed Gail as she got into the driver's seat of the family car. Ayden jumped into the back seat, where no one could see him. Gail noticed Ayden's dropped expression and guilt washed over her. Never letting Ayden to do normal things like the other boys his age wasn't fair. Hell, most boys his age had at least kissed a girl; other than the ones in his family, Ayden hadn't even met a girl.

"Hey, why don't you come sit up front with?' smiled Gail.

Ayden's face froze in shock. "What? I mean, you really mean it?" smiled Ayden as he thought of sitting in the seat where people could actually see him.

"Yeah, why not? I can't keep you hidden away to myself forever. People are going to see you when you start school tomorrow, so they better get used to it."

"Oh. SCORE!" Ayden said climbing over the seat so he was sitting in the passenger's seat next to his mother for the very first time.

On the short drive to the mall, one thing kept running through Gail's mind. "Please don't let them hurt him, please let them be understanding." She prayed silently.

Hopefully, when some people saw him, they see him for who he was, not what he looked like. By the time they arrived at the mall, Ayden was noticeably less excited; this of course concerned Gail horribly.

"Ayden, sweetie what's wrong? We can go home if this is too much," she asked, the concern evident on her face. Ayden looked up at his mother to meet her gaze.

"Nah, I'm okay mum. Just a little nervous" he laughed slightly.

Gail smiled and patted her son's back. "You'll be alright Guppy, I'm here for you."

Ayden grinned back and began to feel slightly more comfortable. They both got out of the car and warily walked towards the escalators. Almost immediately people began to stare. Gail felt Ayden move closer and take her hand nervously. She could tell he was terrified. She squeezed his hand gently hoping it would help ease his fear as they entered the mall. Once inside things got worse. Ayden squeezed Gail's hand tighter and his gills began to flutter faster than usual. As more people began to stare and whisper, some even taking out their phone to get a picture of the unusual boy. Needless to say it grew real old, real quick for Gail.

Gail began to steer her son towards one of the clothing stores hoping to get the shopping done quickly and get home before anyone decided to try and hurt Ayden or herself. Once in the store she led him over to a quiet corner away from where people could see.

"Hey, are you okay darling? I know a lot of people are staring, but it's okay, they just aren't used to you yet. They'll come around, just be yourself like when we were at home. Now how about we get you some new shirts, no son of mine is going to get his first day of school in old clothes." She said trying to get him focusing on something else other than the peering eyes surrounding them. Her plan worked as Ayden smiled and started following her around the store look for a new button up shirt to wear on his first day of school. After 15 minutes of looking, he had decided just to go with a traditional black long sleeved shirt. Ayden went and showed the shirt to Gail who nodded her approval.

"That the one you want?" she asked.

"Yeah, thought it'd be best if I keep it simple." He replied. "You know, to help me blend in more."

"Okay then, let's go pay." Gail said glad that Ayden had relaxed a little.

As they went up to the counter to pay they heard someone shout "HEY, WHO LET THE FREAK IN?" Instantly Ayden moved closer to Gail and held her hand again trying to get some sort of comfort as they turned around to see who had said it. They were confronted by four young men, no older than Ayden and none of them looked happy. One of the boys (who they assumed was the leader) stepped forward and pushed Ayden back causing him to lose his balance and fall over.

"GET OUT OF MY MALL," the young boy yelled, "YOU HEAR ME, FISHBOY?" he yelled more threateningly.

Gail stepped in, going to her son's defence. "LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU IMMAUTURE CHILD! HE HAS DONE NOTHING TO YOU!" she yelled back at the boy, while behind her Ayden managed to get up to his feet as two of the other boys circled around him. They began taunting and shoving him, Ayden was terrified so he did the only thing he knew how to do when faced with this kind of situation.

He ran.

He ran as fast as he could back to the car with Gail not too far behind moving at a considerably slower speed. When she made it back to the car, she unlocked it and they got in only then did she stop to look at Ayden. He was breathing heavy, his gills were flustered a dark grey brown colour and he was crying, tears streaming down his face. She instantly went into mother mode; she hugged and rubbed Ayden's back until he calmed down enough for her to drive home.

Ayden spent the rest of the day in his room. Now, he fully understood why Gail had never taken him out before. He went down for dinner when he was called, he sat in his usual seat next to Kasey, Ayden was very quiet during dinner even more than normal. Mike noticed this because for the past two days he hadn't been able to shut him up.

"Hey Kiddo, what's wrong? Did your tongue finally fall off?" Mike joked. But Ayden didn't answer; he didn't even seem to acknowledge him. He just moved some green beans around his plate with a fork looking like a kid who had just been told Santa wasn't real. Mike looked to his wife for an explanation.

"Ayden, it'll be okay. Not everyone is like those boys in the mall," Gail tried to reassure her son.

"What boy's? What happened at the mall?" snapped Mike, desperate to get more details from the pair.

"Some boys called me a freak and chased me out to the car today…" Ayden answered softly. Mike went to say something else but Gail gave him a warning look.

After dinner Ayden went straight back up to his room. Gail was concerned about him so she went up to check on him. When she opened the door, she found him lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling.

"Ayden, darling it will be okay, I promise you." Gail smiled as she perched herself on the edge of Ayden's bed.

"But what if others at the school hate me too?" he said sitting up so he was face to face with Gail.

"You really should give school a chance. How about if at any time you start to feel uncomfortable and want to leave, just tell your teacher and I'll come get you. How's that sound?" She said, now holding her son in a gentle embrace.

"You mean it? At anytime?" he said looking unsure.

"Anytime." She smiled.

Ayden smiled back at his mother and decided to give school a chance.

"Now, get some sleep, you got a huge day ahead of you tomorrow." Gail told him as she turned off the light and left the room.

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><p><strong>Meanwhile in new jersey<strong>

**BPRD: Infirmary same day**

Abe slowly opened his eyes to realise he was in his healing tank. He groaned and touched his head. There was a sudden knock on the glass.

"Hey, welcome back big fella." Animal smirked as he moved to the wall to push the call button to alert Grace that Abe was awake.

"How long was I out for?" Abe asked, wondering if it had all be a horrible dream.

"Almost 3 days, we were getting pretty worried." Grace said as she walked in, a folder clutched between her hands.

"You said I had a son. How is that even possible?" Abe asked as the water drained from the tank.

"Okay, I'll admit, I may have jumped the gun a bit, what should I have said instead was that you MAY have son. We've been flooded with reports of someone looking a lot like you. Thirty-five in the last two hours to be exact." Grace explained, opening the folder.

"Yeah and Manning wants us to check it out, like now." Animal said his voice thick with sarcasm. His tail flicking like it always did before he got into mischief.


	4. Chapter 4

**OK as usual i only own my characters all others are owned by who ever really owns them so lets just get on with the story.  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Howlett House:<strong>

**Monday morning;**

Ayden woke with a start eager to start his first day of school, all thoughts of the day before it had been forgotten. He quickly raced to beat his sister to the bathroom. After showering and getting dressed in his new shirt, he realised he was running late. He flew down the stairs and into the dining room; he shoveled down his bowl of cereal and follow his sister out to the car. The short drive to school was silent. They arrived at the school just before the bell rang. Gail got out of the car to see Ayden off.

"Now. Just remember anytime you want, just let your teacher know and I'll come get you." She reminded him.

Ayden nodded and hugged his mother before following Kasey to his first class.

"What does this mean?" Ayden asked Kasey; pointing to the class schedule he had been given.

Kasey almost burst out laughing. "You can't be serious? It means that you have English with Mrs Steiner in room 204."

"Where's that?"Asked Ayden, looking lost.

Kasey sighed, "Follow me." Ayden trailed after Kasey as she led him to room 204 "Okay, just wait here after class and I'll take you to Maths." He nodded in understanding before watching Kasey as she went to her class.

Ayden stood outside the classroom for a few minutes trying to gather up the courage to open the door and go in. He took a deep breath and turned the handle.

Mrs Steiner was a kind woman in her last 40's. She had just finish handing out a pop quiz when someone opened the door to her class room.

At the sound of the door opening the entire class looked up at Ayden. This made Ayden cringe with nerves.

"Ah, you must be Ayden right?" Mrs Steiner asked.

"Uh, yeah." Mumbled Ayden quietly.

"Mr Woodworth told me you would be starting class today. Class, I'd like to introduce Ayden Howlett. Ayden, why don't you take a seat next to Marie?" she said pointing to an empty seat near the window next to the most beautiful girl Ayden had ever seen. Not that he'd ever seen or met any girls besides his sisters, and they certainly didn't dress like this girl did. He went and took his seat beside Marie.

"Um, hi. I'm Ayden" Ayden was beyond nervous at this point.

Marie was slightly unsure about the strange boy talking to her, but he seemed nice enough, and the look Mrs Steiner was giving her screamed '_Be nice!'_.

"Hi" she smiled as she held her hand to shake his, nervously he shook her hand. It was warm and soft. It made him feel happy.

Marie smiled one last time before turning back to her test. As she did, Ayden realised that he could see right through the short sleeve of her top giving him a great view of her breasts.

He suddenly felt very warm and tingly; he tried to take his mind off the heat waves he was feeling and the girl who was sitting beside him. This, however, didn't work; his eyes kept wandering over to Marie. She had moved since he had first looked at her, his eyes drawn to her chest rising up and down in rhythm with her breathing and the tingling feeling. In his stomach moved lower and became even stronger, she began to nibble on the end of her pencil. This only made him feel hotter and he had this uncomfortable ache forming in his pants, he shook his head trying to clear his mind and focus on the test in front of him.

When Marie's leg bumped against his under the table, the uncomfortable tingling turned into a pressure. Ayden tried to ignore it, but it only got worse, he couldn't understand what this feeling he thought there must have been something wrong with him. He quickly raised his hand.

"Yes, Ayden?" Mrs. Steiner replied.

"May I go to the bathroom?" he asked, his eyes filled with urgency.

"Of course" she answered.

Ayden raced out the door and looked for a sign to tell him where the bathroom was. He walked very awkwardly down the hall to the bathroom; luckily there was no one inside when he entered.

He quickly went into a stall and began to unzip his pants and pulled down his boxers to relieve some of the pressure and hopefully find out what was wrong. He had been gone for half an hour when Mrs. Steiner began to worry something may have happened to him.

"David, take over the class for a moment please."Mrs. Steiner told another young man in her class as she went to go look for Ayden.

She went to the bathroom closest to her class thinking it would be the most logical place to find him.

"Ayden, are you in here?" she asked poking her head in the door.

"Uh yeah" he replied sounding like her was afraid of something.

"Are you alright dear?" she asked entering the bathroom further.

"I don't know, something's wrong with me" was his response.

"What do you mean? Has something happened?" she was getting more worried.

The pressure had turned into a painful ache.

"It's - I don't know, it just hurts." He sounded terrified.

Mrs. Steiner was convinced Ayden had been hurt and tried to open the door to see why he was so scared, when she began to push the door, he yelled.

"No, don't come in!" he snapped.

Ayden pressed himself against the other side of the door to keep her from coming in and seeing his predicament. The movement caused him to let out a pained groan as his enlarged member hit the hard wooden door.

At the sound of Ayden's pain, Mrs. Steiner almost ripped the door from its hinges.

"Ayden, Ayden listen to me. I'm going to get Mr Woodworth, he may be able to help you," she told him as she left the bathroom to retrieve Mr Woodworth.

Ayden sat in the stall, he looked down at his erect and rather painfully large organ, worry etched on his face, nothing like this had ever happened before.

Mrs. Steiner found Mr Woodworth in his office; she raced into his office in a panic.

"Whoa, slow down." He laughed as she almost ran past him.

"Sir, there is an issue with the new boy Ayden, he won't tell me what's wrong but he keeps saying he's hurt or something," she said in a rush, dragging the principal back to the bathroom with her. When they arrived back at the bathroom, Mr Woodworth entered and knocked on the stall door.

"Ayden, are you alright in there son? He asked loudly.

"I don't know, nothing like this has happened before." Ayden replied, still afraid of what was happening to him.

"Well, tell me what's wrong and I'll see if I can help," Mr Woodworth said hoping there was nothing seriously wrong with the boy.

"It's hard and it's got big and it kinda hurts. I don't know what's wrong with me." Ayden said, crying through the door.

"Ayden calm down, where are you hurting?" cried Mr Woodworth, becoming worried.

Ayden thought about not telling the other man where he was hurting, but he was too concerned with what may be wrong to be shy.

"It's… It's my penis. I was just sitting there and it just started to feel weird and it's hard and hurts so bad. Please help me, make it stop!"

On the other side of the door, Mr Woodworth had a chuckle.

"Its okay son, nothing is wrong with you, it's normal for a boy your age, for these to happen."

"It is? Really?" Ayden asked sounding surprised.

"Yes, it is more often than you'd like." Mr Woodworth replied.

"Then how do you stop it?" Ayden asked from behind the door.

"Don't worry what you need is a very cold shower; you can have one in the boys locker room while I call your mother. I think you should have the rest of the day off." Mr Woodworth told him.

Ayden stuffed himself back in his pants and unlocked the door.

"Uh, sir." Ayden started to say only to be interrupted.

"It's okay, the locker room is that way. Go." Said Mr Woolworth.

Ayden walked slowly and awkwardly to the locker room; thankfully no one saw him or was in the locker room. He undressed and turned on the cold tap full blast, he stepped under the cool spray of the shower and the cold hit him like a wall of ice. It was freezing but it seemed to be working. After a while his problem started to go down and soon he was able to get dressed again. After getting dressed, he went to the principal's office where is mother was already waiting for him. Gail ran to her son.

"Ayden, what happened? I had a call from your principal." She asked in a rush, checking him over for injuries and finding none.

"Mrs Howlett, may I have a word with you?" Mr Woodworth asked appearing in the door way to his office.

Gail followed the principal into his office leaving Ayden to sit outside the office alone.

Mr Woodworth sat behind his desk and motioned for Gail to have a seat which she took, worry consuming her expressions.

"Mrs Howlett, I'm sorry for you to have to come and get Ayden so early in the day, but he had an indecent in class today and, well, he panicked a little." Mr Woodworth told her, trying to stifle a chuckle.

"What happened, is he okay? He didn't seem hurt before." She was getting slight agitated.

"Ayden is okay, he didn't get hurt. He got a, ah-hm, little excited in English, and, well, he got an erection and panicked." Said the principal.

"Really? Oh. OH. Wow. It was going to happen eventually I guess." Replied Gail her voice shaking a little, whether from relief or laughter Mr. Woodworth didn't know.

"I suggest that you may want to have a talk with him when you get home," Mr. Woodworth said in a sympathetic tone.

"Thank you, I believe we will." She replied, standing up to find her son.

Mr Woodworth stood as she left the office. Gail emerged into the outer office and collected a rather embarrassed looking Ayden. She sighed and readied herself as they left the school for the short drive home and a very long talk which awaited them for when they got there.


	5. Chapter 5

****OK as usual i only own my characters all others are owned by who ever really owns them so lets just get on with the story.****

**Oh and before i forget word on the net and down at the comic shop is that insted of hellboy 3 Geillmo del toro (or however you spell his name) is looking a making a B.P.R.D movie anyone else praying it's true.  
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><p><strong>Chapter 6:<strong>

The drive home had been awkward for both Ayden and Gail. '_How on earth are we going to explain the birds and the bees to him?_' she thought, dreading the conversation that seemed inevitable. This was going to be hard.

When they arrived home Ayden made a dash for the front door, obviously not wanting to discuss what happened. He ran to his room and locked the door quickly behind him. Gail knew it would be difficult for Ayden to talk with her about such a personal thing, like what his body could do and how best to deal with it; in the end she decided to wait until Mike got home.

Mike arrived home that evening to find Gail waiting for him in the lounge room. "We need to talk," she said as he walked into the room.

Mike looked a Gail with a puzzled look on his face. "Ayden had a problem in English and I had to pick him up early." She told him knowing full well that Mike would ask what had happened.

"Is he okay? What happened?" asked Mike as he sat down on the sofa next to Gail.

Gail turned slightly so she was facing Mike. "First of all: he's okay, and secondly, I think it's time we had the _Talk_ with him." She put more emphasis on the words the 'talk'. This seemed to confused Mike. _The 'Talk'? What the hell is she on about_? He thought. "What 'Talk'?" he asked warily.

"You know the talk"

"What are you on about?"

"You know, the birds and the bees" Gail said, starting to getting agitated.

"Honestly, I have no idea what you're on about…" Mike said, also starting to get annoyed.

"OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, SEX! WE NEED TO TALK TO HIM ABOUT SEX!" she all but screamed at him. God he was so thick at times.

"Why?" Mike asked a confused look in his face.

Gail thought of smacking her husband in the face, maybe it would help him think better.

Her voice was quiet, "Because he…" she mumbled the last part, it was too low for him to hear.

"What was that? I couldn't hear,"

Gail cleared her throat. "I said, he got an erection today at school and he had no idea what was happening to him. He completely freaked out," she said, hoping Mike would agree to help her talk to their son.

Mike's eyes widened and he sat back. "Wow, wasn't expecting that."

"Yeah and neither was he! Mike, we have to talk to him. He needs to know how his body works, he's fifteen, and he's already behind the other boys."

"You're right," Mike agreed. "Where is he anyway?"

"He's in his room, he ran up there when we got home. I haven't seen him since," she told Mike.

"Listen, you go put the kettle on, I'll go bring him down and we'll answer any questions he has. How's that sound?" Mike told her, standing up to go and get his rather unusual son for a rather difficult conversation. Gail went into the kitchen to make some tea, while Mike climbed the stairs and walked down the hall to Ayden's door finding the door locked, he knocked gently 3 times.

In his room Ayden had fallen asleep with his pillow and blanket over his head. He was roused by some knocks on his door. He groaned as he rolled onto his back. Whoever was at the door knocked again.

"Who is it?" he asked sleepily, sitting up on the edge of the bed.

"Ayden, open up, we need to talk buddy." His father's voice was soft and slightly muffled.

Ayden didn't like the feeling that was creeping up his spine. All he felt like doing was crawling under his bed and never coming out.

"Ayden, son it's okay. Your mother told me about what happened at school, and I am not having this conversation through a door, so open up and come down stairs please." Mike asked.

Gail was waiting in the lounge room with a cup of tea for Mike, herself and a glass of juice for Ayden. When the boys came down the stairs and walked into the room, Ayden had an uncomfortable look on his face. Gail knew he really didn't want to talk, but she figured the sooner they got it over with, the better. Gail and Mike sat next to each other on the sofa while Ayden sat across the small coffee table to face them. The room was silent for several minutes; no one wanted to start the conversation. Gail couldn't stand the awkward silence any longer.

"Ayden, your father and I have discussed how to go about this, and we have come to a conclusion."

Ayden just nodded for his parents to continue speaking.

"We've decided that it would be best if you asked any questions you may have and we'll do our best to answer them" Mike said, looking at his son. Another silence came over them.

"So do you have any questions?" asked Gail trying to breaking the tension. Ayden nodded but was still reluctant to speak. "Look, I know this is hard for you; no young man wants to have this conversation with his parents, but there are some things you need to know." Gail said in a sympathetic voice.

Ayden thought about what Gail had said and it was true, if something else was going to happen, he sure as hell wanted to know before it did.

"I want to know about what happened to me today?" He finally said

Both parents looked at each other, they had a feeling this would be his first question.

"Alright, well what do you want to know? Gail asked.

"Everything I guess" was his reply.

"Well first, what happened was called an erection and it is a perfectly natural reaction," Gail started,

"It's kind of your body parts letting you know you are attracted to someone. But at your age, it can also just happen for no reason. Though as your mother said, it's a natural thing," Mike said, trying to explain further.

"How do you stop it happening?" Ayden asked anxiously. Mike chuckled and Gail slapped him arm to silence him.

"Sorry, but there isn't any way to stop it, but some guys believe by thinking really horrible thoughts you can stop it." Mike said, starting to feel comfortable.

"Well, if I can't stop it; how do I make it go away?" cried Ayden.

Gail decided to leave the room and let the boys talk, she could see where it question was going. Mike waited for Gail to leave the room before he started to speak.

"Okay, well, there are a few ways of making an erection go away, you already know about the cold shower method," Ayden nodded. "There is another way it's called masturbation, most guys your age have done it at least once."

"What's masturbation?" Ayden asked

"Masturbation is," Mike coughed uncomfortably. "Well, it's when a man relives himself by stroking and massaging his, you know personal area," Mike explained awkwardly. Ayden got the idea and his blue skin seemed to darken around his cheeks. Mike supposed it was a blush. "Ah, any more questions?" Ayden asked several more, equally embarrassing, questions before going back up to his room to think about what he had just learnt.

Sometime later Ayden lay in his bed, his mind drifting back to Marie. The tingling feeling from earlier in the day returned with force. When he thought about how her chest heaved in time with her breathing and the great view he had of her breasts, he felt the familiar heat and pressure rise, he looked down and noticed a tent forming in his pants. Carefully he unzipped his pants deciding to test what he had learnt from his talk with Mike, slowly he slid his hand in between his jeans and boxer shorts, he could feel the heat radiating from under the thin layer of material.

Ayden let his hand rest on the growing organ still concealed within his shorts, gently he gave it an experimental squeeze, it felt sooooo good, he squeezed again. Growing more bold he pulled his hand back out and slipped it inside his boxers. Inside he could feel the intense heat even more, he tentatively took hold of his throbbing member, Ayden thought of Marie nibbling on the end of that pencil as he slowly ran a shaky hand up and down his swollen shaft, and he swiped his thumb over the sensitive head, gasping at the feeling. He soon fell into a rhythm and began to moan softly as pleasure started to overcome him.

Down stairs, Gail was still a little worried about Ayden and figured she would try and cheer him up. She went into the kitchen and filled up a big bowl with Ayden's favourite, choc chip mint ice-cream, if anything could cheer Ayden up it was choc chip mint ice-cream. She grabbed the bowl and headed up the stairs to surprise her son.

In his room, Ayden could feel the pressure building at the base of his shaft, it felt like he was going to explode, but he wouldn't dream of stopping anything that felt this amazing, he continued to stroke and squeeze, his pleasure sensors going into overdrive, his breathing becoming nothing more than desperate panting, one final squeeze was all he needed.

"Ayden I've got a surprise for-" Gail froze mid way through the door

"JESUS CHRIST" Ayden screamed jumping so far back that he fell off his bed. Gail slammed the door shut and ran back down stairs.

As Ayden lay on his bedroom floor trying to convince himself that what had just happened was a bad dream, he felt something sticky and wet against his thigh, he looked down and sure enough there was a wet spot on the front of his boxers, Ayden let out a puff of air as he fell back. He lay there for a few more minutes before cleaning himself up heading down to try and explain to his mother.

He found her sitting at the kitchen table calming herself with a cup of tea; she looked up when he walked in. Losing his nerve, Ayden looked away.

"Guess I should have knocked, huh?" Gail laughed trying to ease the tension between them.

Ayden still couldn't bring himself to look at her.

Gail stood up and walked over to pat Ayden on the shoulder, she lifted his chin gently to make him look at her. "Ayden, we've talked about this; it's perfectly natural. You just need to be more careful and make sure you check the door," she said in a loving tone.

Ayden was still avoiding her gave but he nodded on understanding.

"Okay sweetie, I think I'm gonna go to bed. Don't be up too late you've got school in the morning," she told him, giving him one last hug before going off to bed. Ayden sighed before walking over to the fridge where he grabbed a bottle of water. He headed back to his room and as he lay down he stared at the door. _Definitely gonna have to stat locking my door._ Ayden thought before falling into a deep sleep.

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><p><strong>Please review i live for reveiws and as an added incentive if when you review you leave me an idea of what you'd like to see happen to Ayden in future chapters i just might be able to work them in.<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

_**ok here it is the last chapter for the year, don't worry i will be continuing in the new year. to all my readers i wish you Merry christmas and happy new year.**  
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><p><em>BPRD HQ<em>

Abe and Animal were walking together towards Manning's office. "Any idea what he wants us for?" Animal asked, as they approached Manning's door.

"No clue," Abe replied, knocking briefly the door before opening it.

Not one for beating around the bush, Animal got straight to the point. "Okay, Manning. What do you want?" he asked, perching himself on a corner of Manning's desk

Manning stared at Animal. "Well, actually, I wanted to speak with Abe. Alone,"

"Yeah? Well, I want to be Elvis but you don't see that happening any time soon," Animal said, smirking as he picked up a picture from the desk. "Hey, is this your wife? Damn, she's hot! I should really get her number,"

"GIVE ME THAT!" Manning snapped, snatching the picture from Animal's hands.

Abe had had enough of the bickering and decided to cut in. "Manning, what did you want to see me about? I was packing for the mission to investigate the sightings of that boy who looks like me in Brainerd," Abe said

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Manning said, shuffling some papers on his desk. "Abe you're not going," He continued flatly

"WHAT? WHY NOT?"

"Abe, this boy could be related to you," Manning explained. "That makes this a conflict of interest and therefore against regulations. So I have arranged for a team of agents to find the boy and bring him here instead,"

"What if he won't come?" Animal asked, picking up a stress ball and playing with it.

"Then the team is to arrest him and bring him in," Manning said snatching the stress ball back and placing it on the desk out of Animals reach.

"That's your big idea? Arrest him? Manning, he's still a child," Abe argued.

Manning frowned at Abe. "You're not going and that's final,"

Outside Manning's office, Grace could hear the raised voices. She frowned with concern and she leaned towards the door.

While inside the office, Abe lent across the desk, stopping only inches away from Manning's face. When he spoke, his voice low and grainy. "Listen very carefully; either I go, or I quit!"

Grace opened the door to Manning's office just in time to hear Abe threaten to quit. "What's going on in here?" she asked, stepping into the room

"Ah, Grace tell them that they are not going on the mission to Brainerd, and that threatening to quit is no use," Manning said gruffly

"Wait, why aren't they going?" Grace asked

"Because it's a conflict of interest, that's why."

"Well, I guess that's it then, Manning." Abe said

"What?"

"I quit," Abe told him flatly before walking out the door.

Grace was the first to recover from the shock. "If he's going then I'm going. I'm sick of all this secrecy crap," she said following Abe. Animal sat there, still perched on the desk, until Grace poked her head back through the door. "Well, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and get your stuff," She said to him. Instantly, Animal leapt off the desk and ran past her to his room to pack.

**Later that night**

_BPRD GARAGE_

"So where are we going?" Animal asked, loading the last of their gear in the tray of his truck

"Brainerd. My family has a house there and I bet I can get you guys a job with the S.W.A.T team. I have a friend that owes me one and we can check out the reports about that kid." Grace said, folding up the map she had been studying. "It's about a 24 hour drive if we don't stop for too long," she told them

"Okay, we're all ready? When do we leave?" Abe asked, excited at the prospect of finally leaving the B.P.R.D behind.

"We can leave now if you want. Animal, just follow me," Grace called towards the black truck, but Animal didn't answer. She frowned. "Animal," she tried again with no result. "THOMAS!" she knew he would respond to his real name.

"What? I heard you the first time; these things hear everything," he said, covering his ears with a baseball cap. His tail was wrapped around his leg inside his jeans to hide it.

"Okay, are we ready?" Grace asked, deciding to ignore Animal

"Yeah, let's get outta here!" Animal replied, climbing into his truck. Grace and Abe got into Grace's red 2010 Holden Monaro. Animal's Ranger started with a powerful roar; slowly they pulled out onto the street and headed towards the highway.

**24 HOURS LATER, BRAINERD MINNESOTA**

Grace pulled into the drive way of their new home. Animal pulled in beside her. It was night time so they could move all their stuff in without anyone seeing them.

"That's the last one, "Grace announced as they finished unpacking

"Finally," Animal sighed, flopping down on the couch

"Well I'm going to bed. You guys should too. Tomorrow, we see if we can get you guys a job," Grace said, stretching.

"Okay, thanks. Good night," Abe replied

"Yeah, yeah. Night," Animal also replied. As they went up to their chosen rooms for some much needed sleep.

Grace was the first one up the next morning. She decided to let the boys sleep in for a bit longer while she organised a meeting with her friend for later in the day. About an hour later she went to try and wake them. Abe woke easily then she went to wake Animal. When she opened his door she wished she had a video camera. Animal was curled up half under the blankets his ears and tail twitching slightly and he was purring, Abe came and stood at the door to his brothers room.

"Abe, get the camera," Grace whispered.

Animal's eyes shot opened. "Can't a guy get some sleep without someone taking pictures?" he said, stretching.

"But you look sooo cute" Grace laughed, pouting

Animal dragged himself out of bed and went down to the kitchen for breakfast. He made himself some toast and ate it at the table, like grace made him.

"What time is the meeting with your friend?" Abe asked

"In two hours, so when you guys dare finished eating; go and get ready. Oh and, Thomas, that does mean 'take a bath',"

"Awww, do I have to?" he whined

"Yes, it's only water; it won't hurt you, don't be such a 'fraidy cat - lions can swim you know," Grace teased

Abe chuckled while Animal sulked. "I'm not afraid of it; I just don't like it,"

Abe started to laugh out right. Animal glared at him. "SHUT UP!" he snapped

After breakfast and once Abe had finished his shower, it was Animals turn. He turned on the taps and tested the water by putting his tail under the shower spray. He undressed and got in, and washed as fast as he could. He jumped back out and resisted the urge to shake himself dry, he knew if he shook he would pray water everywhere and grace would kill him, instead he used a towel. He raffled his hair viciously with the towel he hated being wet. After he way dry he got dressed, animal wore a pair of jeans that didn't have a hole cut in them for his tail (he had wrapped his tail around his leg so it couldn't be seen) a black t shirt work boots, his base ball cap and sunglasses (to hide his ears and eyes).

Abe waited for his brother at the bottom of the stairs he was wearing a pain whit business shirt black slacks and polished shoes he would put on his disguise later in the car. They all got in Grace's Monaro and went to meet her friend. They pulled up outside a diner. Abe put on his hat, glasses, fake beard and gloves. They entered the diner, Grace instantly recognised her old friend.

"Carter, how have you been?" she asked, walking over to a tall African American man sitting at a table in the back with Abe and Animal trailing behind her.

"Grace, what happened to that cushy government job you had?" the man asked

"I quit, it just wasn't for me anymore," Grace explained

"Are these the guys you told me about on the phone?" he asked, looking over at the two men Grace had brought with her.

"Yes. Carter Anderson I'd like to introduce Mr. Abraham Sapien and Mr. Thomas Sapien," Both Abe and Animal came forward and shook Carter's hand.

"So, Grace tells me you guys used to work for some branch of the FBI," Carter said, motioning for everyone to sit down.

"Yeah, we quit 'cause our boss was an ass," Animal said as they sat.

Grace cut in. "Carter, any chance you need more S.W.A.T guys here?" Grace asked

"Actually, I have just been put in charge of my own team and I'm in the process of deciding who I want on it. So what do your guys have to offer?" Carter asked

"Well, both are expert marksmen. Abe would make the perfect sniper. They are in great physical shape, and Thomas was one of the strongest guys in our old unit,"

"Okay then, is that all?" Carter asked.

Grace smirked then continued "Oh, and Abe can breathe under water and Thomas can turn into a lion,"

Carter stared at Grace for a moment before laughing. "Haha, that was a good one, " he said, jokingly

"What? It's true "she said motioning to Animal to take off his sunglasses. When Carter saw Animal's cat like eyes his jaw dropped in shock.

"You, uhh, weren't kidding were you?"

"Nope,"

"I'll be at the training facility tomorrow at 0600. Here are directions; meet me there and we'll see what the others think." Carter said before standing from his chair and making his way to the exit.

**That afternoon , Howlett house **

_Ring, ring, ring, ring_

"I got it!" Kasey called out before answering the phone. She talked with whoever was on the other end, then hung up and went bounding into the lounge room. Gail was sitting in the lounge room reading a book, when her eldest daughter came bouncing in with a cheesy grin on her face.

"What do you want?" Gail asked, setting down her book.

"What makes you think I want something?"

"I know that look, you only get it when you want something, and so what is it,"

"Alley called, Jason Tyler is having this huge party tonight can I go please? Please, can I go?" she begged her mother.

Gail thought for a moment, even though the last couple days at school had gone better for Ayden, he still hadn't really had a chance to make any friends, so maybe this could help.

"Okay, you can go, but on one condition," Gail said firmly.

"What condition," Kasey asked warily

"You take your brother with you,"

Kasey thought for a moment. "Fine, I'll take him," she huffed before going up to tell Ayden. Once she reached the hallway where all their rooms were she knocked on his door.

"It's open!" Ayden called through the door. Kasey opened the door; Ayden was sitting at his desk finishing his English homework.

"Hey, get dressed; we're going to a party," Kasey said

"What? Where?" He asked turning around in his chair.

"Jason Tyler's house"

"Who's that?"

"A guy from school, everyone is going to be there and mum's only letting me go if I take you. So here's the deal. I'll take you but you have to stay as far away from me and my friends as possible, deal," Kasey said, sticking out her hand.

Ayden took it and said. "Deal,"

Ayden hurriedly changed his clothes. He wore a black short sleeve button down shirt with a red undershirt, jeans and sneakers. He went down stairs, Kasey was waiting for him, and she wore a simple white top with a pair of faded jeans. "Ready?" she asked, Ayden nodded before following Kasey out the door towards where her friends were waiting for them in the driveway.

Alley, Becky and Dallas were waiting outside in Dallas's car. Kasey walked over to them while Ayden hung back uncertain of the new people.

"Who or what is that?" Becky asked, pointing at Ayden

"'That' would be my brother," Kasey replied

"That 'thing' is your brother?" asked Dallas

"Why is he just standing there?" asked Alley

"He's just kinda shy around new people- oh for the love of- HEY YOU COMING OR WHAT?" Kasey called over to Ayden.

"Kasey, what are you doing? Don't call it over," Becky said

"Sorry guys, he's coming with us. It's the only way mum would let me go, don't worry I told him he has to stay away from us. And Ayden is a 'he' not an 'it'," Kasey said directing her words at Becky.

"Fine, whatever, " Becky huffed.

Ayden walked up to the car and got in. The ride to the party was silent and uncomfortable. Dallas parked the car a few houses down from the party and they walked the rest of the way. Ayden was surprised he even made it inside, and, as promised, he stayed far away from Kasey and her friends. Ayden stood off to the side near a wall trying to blend in, after about an hour he went and got himself a coke and returned to the wall. Dallas had been watching Ayden since they got to the party. In his mind Ayden was nothing more than a thing, so he decided to have a little fun at Ayden's expense.

Dallas motioned to Becky. "Hey Becky, distract him while I put some of this in his drink." He whispered showing her a flask of vodka. In response, Becky grinned evilly

Becky casually walked past Ayden and dropped her bag, spilling all its contents. Ayden, being a gentlemen, put down his drink and helped her pick up her things. This gave Dallas the opportunity to spike Ayden's drink. After picking up her things, Becky hurried off to where Dallas had retreated back to.

"Did you do it?" she asked in a hushed tone

"Yup, I put half the flask in. Fishboy is going to be hammered by the time he finishes that," he replied smugly.

Ayden picked his drink back up, he was thirsty so he gulped it down. It tasted kinda funny but he put it out of his mind.

Not long after finishing his drink Ayden started to feel strange. He felt very hot and he started to sweat heavily, then he started to feel sick in his stomach, Ayden decided he should go find his sister. Kasey was in the other room talking to Jason Tyler when Ayden staggered over to her. "Kaasseeyy" Ayden slurred trying to get her attention, she ignored him. When she didn't turn around he tapped her on the shoulder.

"What?" she snapped turning around to yell at her brother. When she fully turned around and saw Ayden, she was horrified. His skin was pale, his eyes were glazed over, he was sweating badly and he seemed off balance.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked, worried. Ayden shook his head then blinked as the world around him started to spin. "Ayden, what's wrong?" Kasey asked becoming more worried; she had never seen her brother like this before.

"I-I don't feel so good," he slurred. Kasey could smell the alcohol on his breath.

Suddenly Ayden felt his stomach lurch upwards.

"I think I'm gonna-." Everyone in the room stood back as Ayden hunched forwards and threw up all over Jason's shoes.

"What the hell?" Jason yelled. Kasey grabbed hold of Ayden's shoulder to help keep him steady as he stood back up. Jason was furious, he stepped forward and grabbed Ayden roughly by the front of his shirt and dragged him through the house. Ayden kept tripping over his own feet and knocking things over, this only made Jason angrier. Jason pushed Ayden out the front door backwards. "Get outta here, freak!"

In his intoxicated state Ayden lost his footing and fell landing on his side, gravel from the walk way digging into his gills. Ayden scrambled trying to get to his feet as the door opened again, fearing it was Jason back with some kind of weapon. In his haste he slipped but was caught before he hit the ground again. Ayden looked up to see it was Kasey who had caught him. Kasey struggled to get Ayden to his feet, when she managed to get him up she slung his arm over her shoulder and walked with him as he stumbled to the kerb.

"Easy now, down we go," Kasey said as she settled him on the kerb under a street light. She made a quick call to her mother explaining what had happened then sat down beside her brother.

"Mum shouldn't be too long," she told Ayden who had begun to scratch at his gills, trying to get the gravel out.

"Here let me help" Kasey said tilting his head so she could see using the street light. Carefully, she started to pick out the gravel; it was difficult because Ayden wouldn't stop moving.

"Hold still," she told him as she tried to get the last piece out. Ayden squirmed and wriggled out of her reach, almost falling flat on his face. Sighing Kasey gave up. "Why won't you just let me get it?" she asked. Ayden looked over at her, he looked like he was going to pass out, she moved closer and let him rest his head on her shoulder.

"It tickled," He said randomly

"What?" Kasey asked, confused

"It tickled when you were touching my gills". Ayden said lifting his head to look at her.

"Really, like this" she said holding him down and finally dislodging the last of the gravel. Kasey thought Ayden had fallen asleep until he spoke.

"Kasey?"

"Yeah,"

"You're a great sister,"

"And your drunk," she replied helping him up as Gail came to a stop in front of them.

When they got home, Gail and Kasey helped Ayden wobble up stairs and got him in his bed. Gail left to get a bucket in case he threw up during the night. While Kasey took off Ayden's shoes and socks, when she saw the webbing between his toes, she got a wicked idea, now that she knew he was ticklish she couldn't resist. Kasey ran a long finger nail down the webbing between his big and second toes. Instantly Ayden jerked his foot away. "Doonn'tt" he groaned

Kasey smirked at him and did it again to his other foot before running out of the room cackling, when he lunged at her.

Gail returned with the bucket just in time, as the quick movement caused Ayden to vomit again.

"Feel better?" she asked

"Yeah, a little,"

Gail patted Ayden's back and laid him down. "Try and get some sleep you'll feel better in the morning" she said turning out the light and leaving him to recover from his first party.

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><p><strong>this is to whoever is checking my story what seems like every day. just message me and i will be happy to discuss with you know what will be happening in future chapters<strong>.

**and please people reveiw,leave me messages, suggest ideas, ask questions. i don't mind i like my readers to be part of the story**


	7. Chapter 7

_**hi as usual i own what i own no more no less.**_

_**recently it was brought to my attention that one of our fellow writers Prophetess92 recently passed away as such i am dedicating this chapter to her memory and i ask if you wouldn't mind giving up a few extra minutes to read and reveiw a story that has specificly been writen as a tribute i wil put a link to it at the end of this chapter thank you.  
><strong>_

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><p><em><strong>Grace, Abe and Animal's House: 0400 hrs<strong>_

_Beep, beep, beep._

SMASH!

Animal rolled back over after throwing his alarm clock across the room.

_**25 minutes later.**_

"Get UP!" Grace roared, ripping the blankets off a still sleeping animal.

Animal growled.

"Come on, we're late," Grace said, throwing some clothes in his direction.

"What? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" he yelled as he struggled to change his clothes.

"Well, you did have an alarm clock," Grace replied, looking at the destroyed clock on the floor.

Abe was waiting impatiently by the door, his disguise already in place. Animal and Grace hurried down the stairs; Animal still wrestling his clothes on.

They all hurried to the cars outside. Grace got in her Monaro while Abe and Animal were in Animal's Ranger. Animal followed Grace to the SWAT training facility that Carter had mentioned and as they pulled in, Abe noticed Carter beside him stood 3 SWAT officers in full tactical clothing and protective gas masks.

Grace got out of the car and walked over to them. "What's the matter? Are your guys shy or something?" Carter asked.

"No, they are coming,"

Abe and Animal climbed out of Animal's truck and walked over to the group. The SWAT officers started to laugh at them

"Something funny?" Carter asked his crew, smirking.

"No, sir" they all said in unison.

"So, this is your crew, huh?" Grace asked

"Yeah. Allow me to introduce Blake West, Scott Greenlaw and Alex Soto," Carter said, pointing out each officer as he said their name.

"Well, we know who we are, so who are they?" Blake asked.

"These are special new recruit members that I told you about," replied Carter.

"Special? I don't see anything special; all I see is a couple of retards."

"Retards, huh? Show 'em guys" Grace said, looking reassuringly at Animal and Abe. Abe removed his disguise and Animal took off his hat and glasses and slid his tail through the hole in his back jeans.

"What the hell is this some kind of trick? What the fuck are those guys?" Scott said as he began to back away slowly.

"Guys, guys. There is no reason to be afraid. They aren't going to hurt you," Grace said.

"Calm down, Greenlaw. This is Abraham and Thomas Sapien. They are going to be joining our crew, and they will be treated the same as anyone else is that clear?" The warning in Carter's voice was clear.

"Yes, sir." All of them said.

Abe and Animal cautiously walked to where Grace was. Animal's ears were constantly twitching, he hated silence. "Hey, you've seen us, so come on lose the masks. Or are you really that ugly?" Animals said jokingly.

The first officer removed his mask and slowly moved forward to shake their hands. He was a muscular man in his early 30's, with his blonde hair in crew cut style. He stood about 6 foot 2. "Blake West," He said, holding out his hand. He then stood back to allow the next person to step forward.

"I- I'm Scott Greenlaw," Scott was also quite tall, but he was thinner than Blake. He had dark brown hair also in crew cut style and he also had a moustache. He was a little more hesitant than the others. The final officer removed their mask.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who's this?" Animal asked. Ignoring Animal's remark completely, she stepped forward and shook Abe's hand.

"I'm Alexis Soto, but everyone calls me Alex" she said. Alex was a Latino woman in her mid twenties. She had long dark hair pulled into a Platt down her back.

Animal stood there with his jaw hanging open. She was the most beautiful women he had ever seen in his life. Grace came over and snapped his jaw shut, breaking his hypnotised stare.

Alex went to shake Grace's hand. Animal pushed in front and took Alex's hand pulled her close and whispered, "Hi there. How do you feel about funny, furry guys?" he said, smiling seductively.

"Oh, you are so barking up the wrong tree," she said, pushing him away.

Animal pulled her back with his tail.

"Oh come on, they say when you go lion, you'll scream like a siren," he told her, giving a squeeze with his tail.

"In your dreams," Alex rolled her eyes and pushed him away again.

"Okay, you'll be in my dreams alright" he said smirking.

"Bite me," She said.

"Oh lord, please say that was an invitation!" Animal said rushing forwards. Grace grabbed him by the scruff of his collar.

"Sorry about that, he's a little A.D.D," Grace apologised

"AM NOT, WOMAN!" he protested.

Grace ignored Animal and looked over at Abe. She knew he really wanted o know about the boy who could be his son. An idea struck.

"Um, Carter, do you have access to police files from here? Grace asked.

"Yeah, sure, follow me." Carter called as he walked off towards a computer station that had been placed in the corner of the room. Grace, Abe and Animal following closely behind to stand behind the computer.

"So, what are you looking for?" he asked.

"Can you search for any information on someone who looks slightly like Abe?" Grace asked.

"I could, but I don't need to. My boy goes to Brained High and he came home a few weeks ago and said that the new kid that just started was a freak. I just thought the kid dressed weird of something, but after this week I'd check the high school first," Carter said, standing back up from the computer chair.

"You really think we should check the school?" Abe asked as they walked back outside towards their vehicles.

"Yeah, if you hurry you could get there before school lets out for lunch."

Abe looked at Grace and she could see the desperation in his eyes. They had to follow this lead.

"We should get moving then," Grace said as they got into their cars.

"Be back tomorrow morning to start training!" Carter called after them.

Grace looked around as she noticed Animal was missing, he was harassing Alex again.

"Looks like we'll be getting to know each other," Animal said moving closer and trying to wrap his tail around her again.

"Oh no, you don't! Come on we're leaving" Grace said as she dragged him by his ears back to the car.

"Ow, ow, OW! Geesh, woman, I'm coming!" Animal whined.

Animal and Grace finally got into their cars and left for the school. Abe put on his disguise and took a deep breath.

When they got to the school, Animal concealed his tail before getting out of the car and they all entered the school. They walked up the administration desk.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Grace Moore with the FBI, could you please tell the principal we must speak with him now." Grace told the lady as she flashed her badge.

"Yes, miss. Please, take a seat, I'll just have a word with him now," the receptionist said, motioning to the chairs. Abe, Animal and Grace sat down and waited impatiently.

"Um, Ms Moore, the principal Woodworth will see you now," called the receptionist as she opened the door to the principal's office.

"Thanks," Grace, Abe and Animal held their breaths as they walked into the office.

Principal Woodworth stood up as they entered and he waved to the seats in front of the desk. Grace shook his outstretched hand before taking a seat.

"Good afternoon, I'm Mr. Woodworth, how may I help you?"

Grace looked over at Abe who was holding his breath and looked back to Mr Woodworth with a smile.

"Yes, we are investigating some reports of a rather unusual looking young man we believe may be attending your school," Grace explained holding out her FBI badge to Mr. Woodworth.

Mr Woodworth took the badge, studied it and sighed. He got up and walked over to a filing cabinet. He flicked through it before pulling a thin manila folder.

"You must be referring to the Howlett boy," He said, opening a folder and studying.

"Can I see the file?" asked Grace. Mr. Woodworth frowned and opened his mouth but Grace cut him off. "Mr. Woodworth, this is an FBI investigation, withholding information is a federal offence, one which you can do some serious time in jail for. I suggest you let me have the folder."

Still frowning, Mr. Woodworth handed over the folder. Grace smiled, "Would you be able to tell us where we could find him? It's urgent." She smiled.

Sighing once again, Mr. Woodworth answered, "From the looks of his schedule, he should be in English with Mrs Steiner in room 204. I'll escort you there," He began to walk towards the door. "Please, follow me," Mr Woodworth said as he walked out of the reception area and into the corridor with Grace, Abe and Animal following quickly behind. The four adults walked in silence down corridors and up stairs until they reached a room with the numbers 204 nailed on the door, Abe held his breath as Mr Woodworth entered the room and disappeared behind the closing door.

Ayden was writing notes down that Mrs Steiner had asked them to copy from the board when Mr Woodworth entered the room. His fellow class mates sitting up and brushing their hair back trying to look presentable for the unannounced Principal.

Mr Woodworth cleared his throat getting Mrs. Steiner's attention. "Mrs Steiner, may I have a word with Ayden please?" His class mates '_ooo-ed_', mocking him. Mrs Steiner nodded for Ayden to get out of his chair. Ayden had no idea why the principal would want to speak with him, no trouble had happened since his last 'accident' in the toilets. Ayden followed Mr Woodworth out the door to where three people were waiting for him outside. Ayden looked at them with a confused look on his face, who were these people. Grace stepped back slightly to as to not scare the boy.

"Ms. Moore, this is Ayden Howlett, I believe he is the young man you are looking for," Those words made Ayden nervous. Why were these people looking for him and what could they possibly want?

Grace stepped forward slowly; she could see he was afraid. Abe stood where he was, shocked, as he started at the boy, almost as if he was seeing a ghost.

"Ayden, I'm Grace Moore. How are you?"

"Fine, thanks." He replied warily.

Abe couldn't resist, he moved forward. There in front of him was a younger looking version of himself - a boy that could very much be his son. Abe imagined he had so many questions for him. Ayden noticed the man behind Grace move; this made him more afraid so he took a step back.

Abe could wait any longer; he pulled off his disguise in a hurry, knocking Animal's hat and glasses off in the process.

Ayden froze in shock; he started at the creature that looked exactly like him and the other man beside him who had lion ears on top of his head. Abe moved forward again not thinking, his movement snapping Ayden from his shocked state. Frightened, Ayden began to back away more quickly.

"What are you?" he asked, still backing away.

"Ayden, it's okay we aren't going to hurt you," Grace said, trying to reassure him.

"He's gonna run," Animal said quietly.

"No, he's not." Abe replied.

Suddenly Ayden took off down the hall towards the stairs which exited the school.

"Told ya so!" Animal said, running after the boy.

Ayden ran as fast as he could. The man with the ears was right behind him, and he needed to lose him fast. Ayden took a sharp right turn towards the school pool and Animal followed, hot on his heels. Ayden burst through the door as Animal started to gain on him. Animal almost had him when he almost fell into the pool. Ayden stopped at the exit as he noticed no one was following him anymore, he looked back to see the surface of the water exploded. The man had fallen in the water and was trying to get out. But, instead of a man climbing out of the water, a lion emerged. Except this lion didn't look like a lion, instead of a long mane it had a mohawk. The lion shook its body dry and looked straight at Ayden. Instantly, Ayden took off again through the exit, the lion gave chase. Ayden ran to the front doors of the school he ran through them as he turned around long enough to barricade the door with some garbage cans. The lion rounded the corner and ran straight at the doors, he slammed himself against the doors, realising he couldn't get out. The lion began to snarl and claw at the door.

Now satisfied that he wouldn't be followed, Ayden bolted to the only place he felt safe. Home.

Having failed to catch the boy, Animal, still as a lion, walked back to Grace and Abe.

"What the hell?" Grace asked.

"You didn't hurt him, did you?" yelled Abe.

Animal shook his head before changing back to his human form.

"In order to hurt him, I would have needed to get close to the little shit. The kid can run like a track star," Animal snarled as he tried to tap the water from his ears.

"Excuse me, but what's going on?" asked Mr Woodworth.

"Bit late don't ya think?" snapped Animal as he concealed his tail once more.

Grace decided to be straight with the principal. "Mr. Woodworth, this is Abraham Sapien and his brother Thomas. We believe Ayden is maybe Abraham's son, and we require his address. And I don't need to remind you this is a federal investigation,"

Mr Woodworth nodded and took off down the hall. Grace, Abe and Animal followed him as he raced down the corridor. Once they reached the principal's office once again, Mr Woodworth frantically wrote on a piece of paper and handed it to Grace.

"This is the Howlett's address. That boy is so lost and has many questions that need answering. He's a good kid, just needs some time."

Abe, Animal and Grace nodded and left the school in a hurry to head for the Howlett's residence. They needed to see Ayden again and hopefully get some information about where he came from.

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><p><em><strong>here is the link i spoke of at the start.<strong>_

__Story of my Life


	8. Chapter 8

**hi chapter 8. this chapter starts where the last one finished.**

**also I should have done this earlier but I'd like to give a big thanks to my beta cheekylips thanks you've been a big help.  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Howlett house<strong>

Gail was busy trying to finish the book she had been reading for the past three months. As she turned a page, the front door was violently thrown open. It collided with the wall with a horrible sound. Gail rose quickly and ran to see what had happened. She made it to the stairs just in time to see Ayden disappear at the top.

Concerned that something terrible had happened to her son, she quickly shut the front door and went up to check on him. When she opened his door, Ayden was nowhere in sight. Gail heard a small shuffling sound coming from under Ayden's bed. Carefully she knelt down and lifted the blankets hanging over the side to peer under the bed. Ayden was curled up underneath his bed shaking.

This worried Gail, "Hey what's wrong?" she asked quietly.

"P-p-people a-are l-looking f-for m-me," he stuttered back.

Gail frowned as she became more concerned. Why would people be looking for Ayden? "It's okay sweetie, calm down," she said trying to coax her out from under his bed. Ayden calmed a little and started to crawl out. "Now who's looking for you?" Gail asked as Ayden sat on his bedroom floor.

"I don't know they came to the school looking for me,"

Suddenly a series of knocks sounded from the front door. Frightened, Ayden scurried back under the bed. With a worried look at Ayden's retreating form, Gail left to see who it was. She walked down the stairs and to the front door, she could hear at least three different people on the other side, cautiously she opened the door. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw when she opened the door. In front of her stood a man who was the spitting image of Ayden, although he was older and had a slightly larger frame. The man was not alone; there was a middle age woman and a man who looked to be in his mid twenties. This man had a tail and pointed ears on top of his head. Gail couldn't help but stare at the strange people standing in her door way.

Grace took Gail's staring as her cue to explain, "Ahem, hello Mrs. Howlett, my name is Grace Moore, may we come in?"

Gail nodded slowly and moved aside to let them enter. Wordlessly, she led them to the lounge room. Gail motioned for them to sit. Abe, Animal and Grace sat together on the sofa while Gail sat across from them still in shock; she never once thought that there could be another like Ayden. Grace cleared her throat getting everyone's attention, "I'm terribly sorry about this Mrs Howlett, but I think you know why we're here," Grace said. Gail broke down and started to cry.

"Yes, please, please don't hurt him. He's a good kid, he's never been in any trouble," she sobbed

Grace felt awful; it was obvious this woman cared deeply for Ayden. "Mrs Howlett, please, calm down. It's alright, we're not here to harm Ayden. We just need to speak with him," Grace said trying to calm the near hysterical woman. Gail slowly managed to control herself, Grace handed her a tissue that she had in her pocket.

"You're not?" Gail asked wiping her face with the tissue.

"No, but we do have some questions for him, if you don't mind,"

"That's fine, I'm sorry, it's just all this was a bit of a shock."

"That's quite understandable," Grace said.

"Uh, may I ask where Ayden is?" Abe asked becoming a little anxious.

Gail was starting to get a little curious about the man who looked remarkably like her son. "Actually I'd like to ask you a few questions first," Gail said

"Okay, I think that's reasonable," Abe replied.

"First question, who are you?"

"My name is Abraham Sapien, this is my brother Thomas, and our liaison slash medical expert Dr Grace Moore."

Gail nodded, "Well that settles that, now why do you want to speak with Ayden?"

"That's rather difficult to explain, but from the information we have gathered we believe that Ayden may be my son. What we don't know is how Ayden came to be." Abe said

"So you're saying you could be Ayden's father," Gail said, cocking her head quizzically

"Yes, we believe so, so may we speak with him?" Abe asked, anxious to meet Ayden properly.

Gail nodded, "Just wait here, I'll go get him, he's a little shy around new people,"

"We know," Animal drawled dryly

Gail went up to fetch Ayden. She opened the door to his bedroom, and Ayden was still hiding under his bed. Gail knelt down so she could see her son. "Hey sweetie, you can come out, there's nothing to be afraid of."

"You sure?"

"Yes, nothing's going to hurt you," Ayden slowly crawled out from under the bed, Gail took her sons hand and helped him to his feet, and Ayden brushed himself off, "Now do you think you could come down stairs, there are some people I think you should meet." she said, herding him towards the door.

"Wait, who's down stairs?" he asked. Suddenly he realised she must be talking about the people from the school, Ayden backed up.

"It's okay they just want to talk with you," Gail said taking his hand and opening the door. They walked downstairs, stopping at the door leading to the lounge room. Gail squeezed Ayden's hand gently to let him know she was there for him. Drawing in a deep breath, Ayden opened the door. Abe, Animal and Grace looked up as Gail and Ayden walked in, Ayden moved a little closer to Gail, as they walked over to the others, Ayden sat next to Gail.

Grace decided to get the ball rolling, "Hello Ayden, I think we got off on the wrong foot before. My name is Grace and this is Abraham and Thomas"

Ayden took another deep breath before speaking, "Mum said you wanted to speak with me," he said, still unsure of the people across the coffee table. Gail patted Ayden's hand, she wasn't sure how he would react, and she thought it would be best if he heard the news from her instead of someone he just met.

"Umm, if it's ok with you I believe it would be best if Ayden heard this from me."Gail said, a sad look coming over her face. Grace nodded

Gail's words confused Ayden, "Heard what, mum? Why do you look so sad?"

"Ayden, sweetie, this is difficult, I promised myself you wouldn't find this out,"

Ayden was becoming nervous again. What didn't his mother want him to know? he looked at his mother with a confused look, Gail turned to face Ayden before continuing.

"Ayden honey, we - we lied to you,"

"What? What do you mean 'lied'?"

"Mike and I didn't adopt you, we found you. One night Kasey wouldn't settle, so we took her for a drive, we were down by the river when a car cut us off, the driver threw something out the window; Mike got out to see what it was," She paused.

"What was it?" Ayden asked slightly afraid of what the answer might be. Abe Animal and Grace listened intently.

"It was a plastic bag, I was at the car with Kasey, when Mike came running through the trees shouting that there was something in the bag, I went to see what he was yelling about, and I found you, you were crying your eyes out. Mike and I fell in love with you the minute we saw you."

Ayden sat there in silence.

"Ayden are you ok sweetheart?" Gail asked

"I was dumped," he said, staring into space. Gail felt her heart breaking.

"Ayden, we still love you the same" Gail said hugging him.

"What about my real parents? What happened to them?"Ayden asked

Grace spoke up, "We can help with that,"

"You know what happened to my parents?" Ayden asked, turning to face the others

"Well kind of, sadly from the information we have we believe your real mother passed away during birth," Grace answered

A sad look came over Ayden's face, "What about my father? Do you know anything about him?"

"Actually, Ayden, we believe that Abraham may be your biological father," Grace said simply

Ayden turned towards Abe, "Y-you're my father?"

"Well, we are almost positive that I am, but we will need a paternal DNA test to confirm," Abe said

"Confirm, what's there to confirm? How many Icthyo Sapiens do you think there are?" Animal said, cutting in

Ayden turned to whisper something to Gail, when he did Grace noticed something she hadn't earlier, a long scar running down Ayden's gills on his right side.

"How do we do a parental DNA test?"Gail asked.

"It's quite simple actually, all I need is a sample of Ayden's DNA, and if it's ok with him I'd like to give Ayden a quick check up," Grace said. Ayden gave her an uneasy look, "Don't worry it's just a check up, I mainly want to check your gills, webbing and fins," she told him with a reassuring smile.

Ayden nodded in understanding. Grace hurried out and retrieved her medical kit from her car. When she returned they moved into the kitchen. Grace had Ayden sit at the table to make the examination easier.

Gently, Grace moved her finger tips over the webbing between Ayden's fingers feeling for any defects. Ayden snatched his hand away sharply, startling Grace. She figured that because Ayden was younger than Abe, the nerves in his webbing must have been more sensitive. Finding no defects she decided to move on and examine his fins.

"Ok Ayden I need you to take off your shirt so I can check your fins"

"Do I have to?" he asked feeling a little self conscious

"Sorry but it's the only way I can check the fin on your back properly,"

Grudgingly, Ayden pulled his shirt off over his head and Grace moved to stand behind him. Ayden shuddered as Grace lightly pinched the long fin that ran down his spine.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Gail asked worried

"Actually, Ayden's reaction was quite normal," Abe replied

"Really?" Gail answered, interested.

"Yeah, I get the same reaction from Abe every time I check the fin on his back," Grace told her finishing up and letting Ayden put his shirt back on. After putting his shirt back on Ayden sat back relived that Grace hadn't found anything wrong yet. Grace pulled a chair closer and sat down so she was at eye level with Ayden's gills; she reached into her bag and took out a tongue depressor and a small flashlight, "Ok now Ayden I need you to turn to your right so I can check the gills on your left,"

Ayden nodded before doing what he was asked. Carefully, Grace used the tongue depressor to move Ayden's gills while she shined the flashlight in to check for anything abnormal.

"This side looks good," she said turning Ayden's head to check the other side, when he had fully turned Grace could see the extent of the damage on Ayden's gills, "Hmm, Ayden, may I ask how this happened?" she asked, motioning to his damaged gills.

"I-I don't know. They've been there since I was a baby," Ayden replied a little uneasy.

"What's wrong?" asked Abe, concerned. Grace moved aside so that he could see the large scar on Ayden's gills, "Oh," was all he could manage to say. Everyone turned to Gail for an explanation.

"Mum, do you know how?" Ayden asked

Gail shook her head, "We have no idea how it happened. When we found you, you had a cut on that side. It wasn't bleeding, we didn't really know if it would affect you."

"Hmm, that would be the cause of the damage here," Grace said, checking Ayden's gills once more.

Carefully she moved his gills as best she could using the tongue depressor. She noticed his gills didn't open completely.

"Uh, may I ask why you're using a tongue depressor?" Gail asked, drawing Grace's attention away from Ayden. Grace finished up before answering.

"I use a tongue depressor because I learned a long time ago that gills are very ticklish." She said with a smile before facing Ayden again.

"Okay, last thing," She said retrieving a DNA swab kit from her bag, "Open up," Grace said before swabbing the inside of Ayden's cheek and storing the swab so they could test it later.

"Did you find anything?" Ayden asked nervously touching his damaged gills.

Grace noticed his obvious worry about the scaring and decided to take pity on him. She smiled at him before speaking, "Ayden, I checked you over and found nothing to be worried about."

"But what about my gills?" he asked.

"Listen, there is a bit of damage to the gills on your right, but unless you're breathing under water with a strong flowing current, I doubt it will give you much trouble." She said.

"What kind of damage?" Gail asked.

"Ayden's gills on his right don't completely open and because of that in a strong current Ayden wouldn't be able to intake enough oxygen though his gills."

"Oh." Gail said.

They all moved back to the lounge room and spent the next few hours chatting and getting to know each other.

3 hours later

"Mummy, Mummy, Mumm- Sophie stopped in her tracks when she ran into the lounge room and saw Abe and Animal.

"Gail, we're hom- WHAT THE?" Mike cried as he came in behind Sophie. Sophie ran to her mother. Gail made the introductions and gave Mike a look that said she would explain later. Grace, Abe and Animal shook Mike's hand.

Mike sat next to Gail while Sophie climbed onto Gail's lap as Kasey went upstairs to her room.

"Mummy, that man has a tail." Sophie whispered to her mother, staring at Animal.

"Sophie, it's not polite to stare." Gail whispered back, unaware that Animal could hear them. Animal had to smile at the little girl while the others were chatting. Sophie ignored her mother and kept staring at Animal, especially his tail. Animal noticed and suppressed a laugh as he watched her eyes dart back and forth following his tail. Sophie climbed down and moved to sit on the floor between her parents and Animal. She was still watching his tail. Animal decided to indulge the little girl slowly, his tail crept towards Sophie. She watched closely until it came within her reach, then she pounced and tried to grab it. However, Animal was too quick and jerked his tail away before she could grasp it.

This soon became a game, Animal would move his tail from side to side and Sophie would try and catch it. It was going good until Animal got distracted by the other's conversation.

Everyone flinched as Animal gave out a sudden yelp; they turned around to see Animal with a pained look on his face and an excited Sophie holding the end of his tail in a death grip.

Grace looked at Animal with laughter in her eyes. "Are you having fun there?" she said giggling.

"Get. Her. Off." Animal squeaked. Gail moved forward only to be held back by Grace.

"Uh, uh, aah… What is the magic word, sir?" Grace teased.

Animal growled slightly.

"Get her off, please." He said still a little squeaky. Gail reached forward. Gail snapped a little harsher than she meant. "Sophie, let go you're hurting him." Sophie instantly let go of the tail and started to cry as Animal flopped on the couch relieved. Animal noticed Sophie's crying instantly, he felt guilty. Grace figured that this would be a good time to leave.

"I think we should be going now. We'll be in contact." Animal didn't get up; instead he leaned forward, closer to the sniffling Sophie. Not that he would tell anyone, but Animal was a real pushover when it came to kids.

"Hey, Soph. You wanna see something really cool?" he asked.

Sophie nodded her head, wiping her face. Grace could see where this was going; she knew Animal hated seeing children upset, so she decided to leave him to his fan.

"Okay, Sophie close your eyes and count to 10 then open them."

Sophie closed her eyes and started to count.

"Eight, nine, ten." Sophie opened her eyes in front of her where Animal was sitting there was a Lion. Sophie was ecstatic.

"KITTY!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. Animal now was in his lion form. Swaying his tail happily and started to purr as Sophie hugged him. Gently, he nudged her with his nose making her laugh. She pushed him back and he rolled over on his back. Sophie then began her assault.

To everyone but Grace, it appeared that Sophie was scratching Animals belly just like you would a large dog. Animal was rolling around making purring noises and growling sounds and even sounded like he was trying to talk with growls. Grace just laughed which puzzled the others.

'What's so funny?" Mike asked.

"She's tickling him." She laughed. Sophie was laughing hysterically and kept tickling until Grace finally broke it up to tell Animal it was time to go.

Abe, Animal and Grace told the Howlett's they would be back with the results of the DNA test tomorrow before departing.

Later that night, Grace sat at her computer half asleep waiting for the DNA results of Ayden's test. The computer beeped signalling that the test was complete. Grace's head shot up at the sound. She exhaled sharply before looking at the screen, as the bright green positive sign flashed in front of her. Grace smiled and nodded as she stood up and turned off the computer heading for bed.


	9. Chapter 9

Grace, Abe and Animal's house

0400hrs

Abe was first up the next morning. He rushed down to the basement, which had been converted into a lab for Grace. In his haste, he tripped down the basement stairs, landing with a crash at the bottom, "DARN IT!" he yelled, getting off the floor to search for the light switch.

Grace woke with a start upon hearing a crash from the basement. Fearing someone had broken in, she went to wake Animal's room, due to it being the closest.

"Animal, Animal wake up," Grace whispered, shaking him gently.

"Wassat," Animal slurred groggily.

"Shh," Grace said, "I think someone's in the house,"

Animal pushed himself up onto his hands, "Okay, okay, I'll go check," He said. On the way out he picked up a bat from beside his bed, not that he really needed it.

Silently, Animal crept down to the basement with Grace following behind. As he opened the door to the lab, they heard rustling noises. There was defiantly someone in the lab.

As quietly as he could, Animal snuck around the edge of the lab to get behind the figure lurking in the darkness. Softly, he snuck up behind the intruder and readied his bat to strike.

Grace stood in the door way, "Hey you!" she shouted. The figure in the dark spun around at her shout, Animal swung the bat catching the intruder of guard.

The intruder hit the ground hard with breathless groan. Animal pinned him to the ground by climbing on top of him while Grace found the light switch. The lights in the lab flashed on, filling it with a blinding light.

Grace hurried to where Animal had the intruder pinned, rounding the corner she spotted Animal crouched on top of Abe's chest growling and snarling viciously. Animal looked down to see his brother struggling to breathe under his weight.

"Get off," Abe wheezed. Quickly, Animal scrambled off Abe and helped him up.

"Abe, what in the hell are you doing sneaking around in my lab?' Grace asked, not too pleased.

"I was just hoping to find the results of my DNA test," Abe replied, embarrassed at being caught. Grace couldn't help but smile at Abe's impatience. "Okay. You cook breakfast since you woke everyone up, and messed up my lab, and I'll tell you the results." She said smartly before going up for a shower. Grace and Animal got themselves ready for the day, while downstairs Abe cooked. He made bacon, eggs and toast.

Animal was practically drooling when they got to the table. Abe placed their meals and coffee in front of them, and then sat down to his own plate. Grace looked over at Abe while she ate; he was eating almost as fast as Animal. She knew she had to slow him down or he would choke.

"Abe," she called to get his attention.

Immediately, he started to choke. Animal gave his brother a sharp wack to the back to help, Abe coughed a few more times before settling and looking at Grace.

"Slow down, I'll tell you the results."

"So what were the results?" He was almost begging her that this point.

"The results were positive. Congratulations Abe, you're a daddy." Grace teased.

"Really?" Abe smiled.

"Yes Abe, Ayden really is your son. We'll go break the news to them this afternoon."

Animal looked up from shovelling his food down this throat to realise it was already half past 5.

"Hey Abe, you better hurry up and get ready, we're supposed to start training today."

Abe turned to look up at the clock, "Damn it," he said before gulping the last of his coffee and running upstairs to get ready.

When he came back down stairs, all three of them packed up what they would need for training. For Abe and Animal that meant they had to pack all their weapons, including Animals shotgun with dragon breath rounds and Abe's sniper rifle modified to fit his webbed hands. After making sure they had everything, they got in their vehicles.

As usual Grace was in the Monaro and Abe and Animal were in the Ranger, however this time Abe was driving.

"Abe, every scratch you put on my truck, that's one I'm gonna put on you," Animal said moving so he could sleep on the drive. They drove to the training grounds where they were met by Carter and the other S.W.A.T members.

Animal was instantly awake when he spotted Alex, he leapt from the truck as soon as it was stopped. Grace pulled in besides the Ranger and noticed Animal was heading straight for Alex while she wasn't looking.

Alex let out a startled cry when Animal grabbed her from behind and pulled her against him. "Well, well, we meet again Princess." He whispered in her ear wrapping his tail around her tightly preventing her from escaping.

"THOMAS ROYCE SAPIAN LET HER GO RIGHT NOW!" Grace roared storming towards him. Abe followed behind.

"What, we're just having a conversation, that's all," He was trying to look innocent, with his tail still wrapped around Alex. Grace didn't buy it though, she walked up and pinched Animal's ear painfully making him let go of Alex, who quickly moved out of this reach.

"Ow, okay let go!" he cringed.

Grace smiled at Alex before dragging Animal off by his ear, so she could have talk with him, Abe stayed with Alex.

"I'm sorry about my brother. This is kind of his way of letting women know he likes them. Apparently, it's got something to do with male lions and dominance," Abe said as they watched Grace drag Animal away.

Grace finally let go of Animals ear much to his relief. She pulled him forward by his shirt, "Listen, I know you like this girl but you need to calm yourself the HELL down! You gotta stop this kind of behaviour or am I gonna have to neuter you?" she said in a hushed tone. Animal winced at the thought.

"Okay, I'm sorry! You know I can't help it!" he said.

Grace let go of his shirt, "I know your more animalistic instincts take over sometimes, but you've gotta try and control them, Now come and apologize," She replied with an understanding voice. Animal nodded and followed her back to the others; his ears were folded back over with a kicked puppy look on his face. He didn't look half bad if you didn't look at the ears on top of his head or the four and a half foot tail

"I'm sorry," he said. Grace elbowed him at his side, "I'm sorry for sneaking up behind you and grabbing you, and wrapping my tail around you and not letting you go," He listed the things he had done wrong like a child would.

"Apology accepted." Alex said, holding out her hand. Animal, or more like his instincts, took her gesture the wrong way instead of shaking her hand, Animal used it to puller her into a bone crushing bear hug.

Alex tried to push away and break his hold, but he was too strong. Abe moved to help force his brother to let go, but when Abe got near Alex, Animal's ear straightened up and he growled and snarled loudly forcing Abe to back off at the risk of being seriously injured.

"Thomas!" Grace shouted his real name again causing him to realise what he was doing and he immediately let go.

"Sorry," Animal said sheepishly refusing to make eye contact. His instincts had got the better of him again. Grace was about to hit Animal over the head when they were interrupted by a shout.

"Hey, you guys training or what?" Carter shouted from the entrance to the obstacle course.

"Yeah, yeah we're coming!" Grace shouted back. Everyone walked over to Carter and the rest of the team.

"Now that we're all here, let's get started. First up, let's see how you guys handle the obstacle course," Carter said, looking at Abe and Animal. The brothers lined up beside each other as Carter readied his stopwatch, "Ready, GO!" he shouted, starting the watch. Abe and Animal took off in a sprint. They bolted along the set track before scaling the high wall and crossed the finish line. Animal wasn't even breaking a sweat.

Carter hit the stopwatch just as they crossed, "Wow," he said disbelievingly, looking at the watch.

"So, how'd they do?" Grace asked, coming up to peer over Carters shoulder.

"Looks like a new course record," he replied showing her the watch screen. Grace subtly gave the boys a thumbs up signalling they had passed.

"Okay, so you can run but can you shoot?" Blake asked, smirking

"Better than you," Animal replied eager to show up the smartass.

"Thomas, shut up," Abe groaned. He just wanted to get this over with so he could go see his son.

"Whatever," Animal replied before turning to fetch their weapons from his truck. He soon returned with his shotgun, Abe's sniper rifle and their side arms.

"Alright, let's see what you got," Carter said, while Abe and Animal loaded their weapons, they both moved to the starting line.

"Ready, GO,"

A deafening boom echoed as Animal fired then dropped his shot gun, upholstered his pistol and rushed to the next position following Abe. They continued through the firing range, hitting each target as they popped up, when they got to the end they holstered their side arms and signalled they were done, Carter came over and inspected the targets.

"Whoa," he said

"You think that's good, wait till you see what Abe can do with his sniper rifle," Grace told him proudly.

"Hey Abe, can you bring that rifle over here? I wanna see how good you are. See if you can hit that," Carter said pointing to the Ace of diamonds playing card that had been placed on a tree almost a mile away.

"He's never gonna get it, that's been up there for years and no one's ever even come close to hitting it," Greenlaw whispered to the others while Abe was setting up his rifle.

Abe moved into a prone position and readied himself.

"Twenty bucks says he makes it," Animal said waving a twenty dollar note.

"You're on," Blake and Greenlaw replied at the same time.

Abe looked through the scope, took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. Carter raised his binoculars.

Abe looked over his shoulder to see what Carter had to say. Carter lowered the binoculars again and everyone looked at him in anticipation.

"God damn, he hit it. He actually hit it," he said with amazement filling his voice.

"Double or nothing says he can't do it again," Blake said, a little aggravated. Animal looked at Abe to shoot again, Abe fired once more.

"Another hit, dead on,"

"You're kidding, this has to be some kinda trick," Blake snapped.

"Calm down and pay up. You lost so get over it" Carter told him gruffly.

Angrily, Blake handed over the cash. Abe and Animal continued to pass every test Carter could throw at them.

When it was finally time to go they were exhausted, they bid everyone farewell before Abe and Animal got in the Ranger.

"Looks like my talk with Animal has him behaving," Grace said to Alex when she noticed Animal had been avoiding her like the plague.

"What did you say to him?" Alex asked curiously

"I told him that if he didn't stop acting up, then I would have to neuter him," Grace revealed, smiling.

"Ooh, no wonder he's behaving,"

"Yeah," Grace laughed

"Um, Grace, Abe mentioned something earlier about Thomas," Alex started nervously

"What exactly did Abe tell you?" Grace asked

"Not much, only that Thomas's behaviour has something to do with lions," she replied, confused.

Grace decided she should just come straight out and tell Alex about Animal, "Alexis, you're aware that Thomas and Abe are not exactly human," she began

"Yeah, it's pretty obvious,"

"Well, Abe and Thomas are, or I should say were, military experiments quite some time ago, and Thomas's DNA is a mix of human, lion and dog, where as Abe's is a mix of human and various types of fish.

"Really?" Alex asked, interested.

"Yes, and because of that sometimes Thomas's more animalistic side takes over, it's usually when he's in an emotional state, like when he or people he cares about are in danger. But it can also happen when he feels great desire. Abe however seems to be more human in that aspect."

"So that's why he keeps hitting on me so strongly?" Alex questioned

"Yes, think of it kinda like puppy love. I don't think he will go much further then pickup lines and the occasional cuddle, but if he does, I want you to use this," Grace said, handing Alex what looked like a pager.

"What's this?"

"This emits a high pitch sound that is tuned so only he can hear it,"

"Like a dog whistle"

"Yeah kinda," Grace said her farewells and got in her car and followed the boys to the Howlett's residence.

Abe was so excited on the drive that Animal threatened to tie him up.

Howlett home

1600hrs

Ayden sat in the lounge room. Sophie was playing with her dolls on the floor and he had no idea where Kasey was.

Impatiently, he looked out the window as another random car drove past. Disappointed, Ayden sat back down. Gail walked in from another room and sat next to him. She patted him on the back.

"I'm sure they'll be here soon," she said

Ayden raced to the window when he heard two vehicles park outside.

"They're here!" he shouted, bolting to the door. Ayden threw the door open almost running straight into them.

"Whoa, slow down there, Guppy," Animal teased.

Ayden hated his nickname. Why Gail had told them it was beyond him.

Gail appeared behind Ayden and ushered everyone into the lounge room. Sophie spotted Animal instantly; she ran up and hugged him around the legs almost tripping him.

"Can you do the kitty trick please," she begged.

Animal shook his head and crouched down to Sophie's level, "How about I do it a bit later? Right now we have to talk with Ayden," he said before standing up.

Sophie nodded and went back to playing with her dolls on the floor. Abe, Animal and Grace sat on the sofa together with the Howlett family minus Kasey sitting across from them. Ayden couldn't wait any longer.

"What did the test say?" he blurted out before thinking.

"Relax, calm down." Mike said, trying to settle Ayden, who was almost having a fit from the excitement.

Grace suppressed a giggle if only they had seen how Abe acted that morning they would see how alike father and son were. Grace cleared her throat and retrieved the envelope from her bag; she coughed slightly and handed it to Ayden. He viciously tore it open. Ayden looked at the results then at Abe, then back to the result and frowned.

"What does it say? I don't understand it" he asked. It was obvious he was becoming frustrated. Grace took the results back and smiled.

"The test was positive. Ayden, meet your biological father," she said, waving over to Abe. Ayden sat there on the edge of his seat in shock starting at Abe. Finally, after fifteen years his real father was sitting before him it was too surreal.

Ayden felt dizzy, his vision blurred before going black. Animal scrambled to catch his nephew as he fell forward unconscious.

"Easy there," he said as he laid Ayden back on the sofa. Gail rushed to the kitchen and returned with a damp wash cloth. She gently rubbed Ayden forehead

"Actually, it would be more effective if you dabbed around the edge of his gills," Grace advised. Slowly, Ayden began to come around, opening his eyes. Ayden looked up into the worried faces of his family and his father. Embarrassed, he tried to sit up too quickly, only to be forced down by Abe.

"Easy, don't get ahead of yourself," Abe warned.

"What happened?" Ayden groaned.

"You passed out; I think it was because you were so worked up," Gail replied.

Ayden groaned again in embarrassment, before slowly sitting up. After making sure Ayden was okay, everyone except Abe and Ayden left to sit in the kitchen. Ayden looked across the room at his father, there were so many questions but he didn't know where to begin.

"This isn't some sort of elaborate prank is it?" he asked.

Abe chuckled "No, I can assure you it's not."

"So you really are my father?"

"Yes, it appears so," Abe replied. Then Ayden blindsided Abe with a question he had wanted to ask ever since he found out.

"Why was I dumped?" Ayden asked sadly.

Abe didn't really know what to say to his son. He sighed before speaking."Ayden, to be honest, I didn't even know you existed until a few weeks ago." Ayden was confused.

"If you didn't know about me, then who dumped me?"

Abe sighed heavily.

"We think it may have been a doctor who was involved with the military. You see Thomas and I weren't born like you were, we were created to be well I guess you could call it some kind of super solider. We were a success according to the department of defence, so they were going to try and make newer versions of us, but the program was shut down."

"But if they shut it down..." Ayden's voice trailed off…

"There was a doctor he didn't take the program shutting down too well, he somehow managed to get my DNA and police records indicate he may have kidnapped a young woman about nine months before you were born. A few days after the Howlett's say they found you, a young woman's body was found. She had just given birth, but the baby was never found,"Abe finished guilt heavy on his heart. He prayed the information wouldn't emotionally scar his son. Ayden was shocked but never expected anything like that

"Are you going to take me away from Mike and Gail?" He asked. Abe looked at his son, his nerves making his stomach do flips

"Ayden, I would never take you away from the people who love you. But I would really like us to spend more time together as father and son. But only when you feel you are ready," Abe told him. Ayden nodded in understanding and his eyes started to water. Abe noticed this and moved to comfort him.

He placed a hand on Ayden's shoulder, "Hey, it's okay. We won't do anything until you are ready. What's wrong, buddy?"

"Nothing, it's just…," Ayden didn't finish speaking before wrapping his arms around Abe's neck and burying his face into it. Abe was stunned by Ayden's actions; he very still not knowing how to deal with an upset child crying into his shoulder. He was still new at fathering. At that moment, the other's decided to re enter the lounge room. Ayden pushed himself away from Abe and hastily wiped the tears away.

"Are we interrupting?" Grace asked.

"NO!" Ayden replied, still wiping his tears away.

Everyone sat down on the couches.

"So, what happens now?" Mike asked.

"Well, I have discussed this with Ayden and we feel it would be best if when Ayden is ready then perhaps he could stay with us for a few days." Abe said. Gail looked to her son who nodded.

"I don't want to leave you guys but I need to spend some time with my father." Ayden said feeling a little guilty. Gail noticed his difficulty with the situation. She moved to sit beside him and took his hand.

"Ayden, there is no reason to be sad. You are still going to be part of this family. The family just got a little bigger that's all," She said smiling as Ayden hugged her.

Sophie, who had been waiting patiently, could wait any longer.

"Mr. Kitty! Come play!" she said loudly, tugging on Animal's arm. Everyone laughed at the nickname Sophie had given Animal.

"Okay, okay," he said before transforming into his lion form.

Sophie tackled him, "Can I have a ride?" she asked, trying to climb on his back. Animal bowed and made it a little easier for her to get on. Sophie giggled madly as Animal walked around the room with her on his back. After a few minutes she became too heavy and he had to sit down. Animal sat down and Sophie slid off his back.

"Can I take him for show and tell? She asked looking at the adults.

"Sophie, sweetheart. I don't think that's such a good idea, Thomas isn't a toy, he's a person," Gail said, trying to convince her daughter.

Animal changed back into his human form and looked between Gail and Sophie who was using his weakness for kids against him by giving him the puppy dog eyes.

"It's fine. I don't mind. When is it?" He said, giving in. Sophie smiled.

"In three days" she hugged him excitedly around the legs again. The unusual family spent the remainder of the afternoon talking and making plans for when Ayden would be staying with Abe. Eventually, it was time to leave. Abe reminded Ayden that when he was ready he could come and stay. They said their farewells and Sophie made Animal promise he would be at show and tell.

Abe, Grace and Animal got into their vehicles and went home, where Abe set up a room in preparation for when his son would come to stay.


	10. Chapter 10

On the day of show and tell, Sophie woke early. She was to exciting to sleep and kept thinking that she had the best thing ever to show the class. She bathed, got dressed and went downstairs to watch cartoons until everyone else was up.

Half an hour later, saw the family sitting down to eat breakfast.

"Mummy, don't forget to tell 'Mr. Kitty' to be at school at ten o'clock, for show and tell today," Sophie told her mother, chewing on her toast.

"Okay," Gail said getting up and walking to the phone. She dialled the number Abe had written down for her. She spoke with Animal for a few minutes, letting him know when to be at the school and what classroom to go to before hanging up. She returned to the table to find Kasey and Ayden arguing over a piece of bacon Ayden had skilfully stolen from his sister's plate.

"Give it back!" Kasey shouted, locked in fork fight to reclaim her lost bacon.

"No, you never eat it all your bacon any way," Ayden retorted, slithering his free hand up to try and snatch the bacon. Kasey raised her fork to stab at the bacon, just as her fork was about to stab it Ayden's hand moved in the way.

Ayden let out a scream as Kasey's fork pierced his hand.

"Cut it out you two! I leave the room for five minutes and you two try and kill each other," Gail snapped, fetching a cloth to stop the bleeding. She had Ayden hold the cloth on his hand while she got the first aid kit from the cupboard, "Okay, let's see what we've got," She said, lifting the now blood stained cloth from her son's hand. Ayden had four little hole punctured in the back of his hand, they were bleeding but didn't look like they needed stitches.

"Hmm, that's not too bad," She pulled out some gauze, a bandage and every kids worst nightmare, the iodine. Carefully, Gail poured some iodine onto some gauze.

"This might sting a little," She said, holding Ayden's hand so she could clean his wounds. Gently, she wiped over the punctures. Ayden hissed and tried to pull his hand away. Might sting a little? Was his mother insane? It didn't hurt a little - it felt like someone had just ran a hot poker through his hand. Gail kept a firm grip on her son's hand so he couldn't pull away; she blew softly on the wounds to help with the stinging, before placing the remaining gauze on his hand and wrapping it with the bandage.

"There all better," She said before clearing the table Ayden watched his mother clear the table. He had been thinking a lot about his father over the past three days, he cleared his throat to gain his mothers attention.

"Uhmm, Mum," Ayden lost his nerve and looked away fiddling with the bandage.

Gail stopped and looked at him.

"Sweetie, what's the matter?" she asked, concerned.

"Nothing, I was just thinking, maybe, if it's okay with him, if, I could, you know, spend the weekend with my father," he said, awkwardly.

"Ayden, honey, if that's what you want, we can give him a call afterschool and see if it okay," Gail said.

"Why can't we call now?" he asked, a little excited.

"Because if we so you'll be late for school, now got moving," she said, showing him out to the car where Mike was waiting with the girls to take them to school. Mike dropped the kids at school and went to work.

Once there, Sophie ran to her teacher, "Ms Myer, Ms Myer!"

"Yes, Sophie?" Ms Myer said

"I got the best show and tell ever!"

"Really where is it?" Ms Myer asked, smiling

"He's coming later,"

Ms Myer figured Sophie's show and tell must have been a family pet that either Mike or Gail would be bringing in later.

GRACE, ABE AND ANIMAL

0900hrs

Abe and Animal were enjoying their day off from training. They were sitting in the lounge room; Abe was reading a book while Animal was watching TV. Grace was busy looking through some boxes in her lab for the police harness that Animal wore when working in his lion form.

"Ah, found it," she shouted triumphantly, pulling out the large dog harness with police written on the side. She walked into the lounge room and lightly tossed the harness at Animal, he looked at her confused.

"What's this for?" he asked.

"You promised Sophie you'd be at her show and tell"

"Yeah, I know Gail already called and said it's at ten."

"So you can't just transform in front of a bunch of kids" Animal thought for a moment, Grace was right, his transformation was painful for people to watch.

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

"I thought if you transformed and we put the harness on before you get there, than we could say you are a new police lion,"

"Hmm, that's actually a good idea," Abe piped up sitting his book down

"Okay fine, but go easy on the leash," Animal said standing up and transforming. Grace put the harness on Animal and grabbed a long leather leash from near the door. Animal went hyper at the sight of his leash, playfully growling and nudging Grace.

"Okay okay calm down, I'm not taking you, he is," she laughed, pointing at Abe. Animal looked straight at Abe and gave a yap, which sounded more like a dog than a lion. Abe ignored him; Animal hated being ignored, so he walked over and started to purr as he rubbed up against Abe's leg trying to use his cuteness to his advantage. When Abe still didn't get up Animal jumped up and pushed him off his seat. Grace laughed when Animal began to nuzzle in to Abe's side trying to him up from the floor where he landed; finally Abe gave in and got up. Abe walked over and took the leash from Grace, with Animal following happily.

"Have fun you two," Grace giggled as Animal pushed Abe to the door with his nose, tiring to hurry him up. Abe opened the front door and almost got knocked over as Animal barged through the doorway and ran to the Ranger. The truck beeped as it unlocked, Abe lowered the tailgate.

"Well what are you waiting for?" he said nodding towards the tray. Animal jumped into the try with little effort, Abe closed the tailgate and got into the driver's seat. Animal deeply enjoyed the ride to Sophie's school; he loved riding in the back with the wind in his fur. They arrived at the school just before ten; Abe got out with leash in hand and lowered the tailgate. Animal moved to the back of the tray so Abe could attach the leash, Animal jumped out of the tray and allowed Abe to walk him into the school and up to Sophie's classroom. Abe knocked gently on the door and stood back as not to frighten the teacher when they opened the door.

Inside, Ms Myer's class was disrupted by someone knocking on the door. Ms Myer moved to open the door.

"May I help you?" Ms Myer's words died on her lips when she opened the door to see, what she could only describe as a fish man standing just outside her classroom. Abe opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a rather excited Sophie.

"Uncle Abe!" she screamed, leaping from her seat and running to him.

"Whoa, slow down there princess," Abe laughed crouching down to give Sophie a light hug, Ms Myer was a little uneasy about the strange looking man who Sophie had just called her uncle.

"Excuse me?" she said making Abe stand back up

"Yes?"

"May I ask who you are and why you are here?" she asked

"Oh, of course, I'm Abraham Sapien, with the police department's SWAT team, Sophie asked me to bring in her show and tell," Abe told her motioning to Animal who Sophie was patting.

"I'm sorry it not that I don't believe you, it's just that well..."

"I don't look like a typical police officer" Abe finished for her

"Well yes" she said slightly embarrassed

"Its fine I get it all the time and I'm not actually Sophie's uncle more like a close family friend" Abe said pleasantly.

"Oh, I'm sorry please come in," Ms Myer said moving aside. Abe crouched down beside Sophie once more.

"Sophie,"

"Yes?"

"We need you to do us a favor, we don't want everyone to know that Thomas is really a person so we need you to him by his lion name,"

"Okay what is it?" she asked.

"His name is Animal and he's a police lion," Abe told her before standing back up.

The whole class was gaping as Abe walked in with Animal trotting along beside him. Sophie stood proudly in front of her class next to a table.

"This is Animal, he is my show and tell," she announced then looked to Abe for him to let Animal of the leash. The clasp on the leash clicked as Abe released Animal, Sophie patted the table next to her and Animal ran forward and leapt onto the table.

"Animal is a police lion, he helps catch bad guys," she said, scratching behind his ear making him purr.

"Don't the police use dogs?" one of the boys in Sophie's class asked. Sophie bit her lip and wrung her hands not knowing how to answer. Abe noticed and stepped in.

"Yes, police do normally use dogs, but Animal works with the SWAT team, and as such he has had special training," Abe said

"Can he do any tricks?" one girls asked. Sophie looked at Abe again he nodded

"Just tell him to do something," Abe told her

Sophie and Animal entertained the class by doing several tricks like roll over and beg, but all good things must come to an end and it was soon time for Abe to take Animal home. They said goodbye to the children and left the school, Animal riding in the tray once more. When they got home Animal jumped out and followed Abe into the house, where he harassed Grace until she took off his harness so he could transform.

"So how'd you go?" she asked after he had transformed.

"We were a hit," he told her like a goof making her laugh.

"Any word from Gail, is Ayden ready to come and stay?" Abe asked expectedly.

"Sorry Abe no word yet," Grace replied

"Just give him some time, he'll call when he's ready," Animal said

Howlett home

Later that day

Ayden and the girls walked in the front door tired from school. Kasey went straight up to her room, while Sophie told her mother all about Abe and Animal's visit to her class. Ayden waited until Sophie had finished and gone to her room, Ayden followed Gail into the kitchen, and watched as she cut some vegetables for dinner, when she noticed Ayden was standing in the room.

"Oh, hi honey, how was school?" she asked, when she noticed Ayden was standing in the room.

"It's fine, some guys still pick on me and call me a freak, other than that it was okay," he replied with a smile.

"Why are you so happy?" she asked, turning around to face him.

"You said we could call my dad and see if I can spend the weekend with him,"

"Oh yeah I did, didn't I?"

"So can we?"

"Alright, here's the number," she said handing him the number

Ayden went into the lounge room, picked up the phone and sat down on the sofa, nervously he dialled the phone number, he listened intently into the receiver. The phone rang a few times before a familiar voice answered. Ayden instantly recognized his father's voice.

"Hello," Abe answered through the phone

"uhh, hi, um dad" Ayden said nervously. Suddenly ,the phone line went silent, Ayden was afraid he might have scared his father off by calling him dad too soon.

On the other end of the call Abe had been stunned in to silence, Ayden had just called him dad, he was pulled back to reality by Ayden once again speaking through the phone.

"Dad, dad, are you still there?" Ayden called into the phone.

"Oh, umm, yes, Ayden I'm still here," Abe stammered

"Um, you said that when I was ready I could come stay with you,"

"Yes"

"I-I think I'm ready, I was hoping maybe I could spend the weekend with you," Ayden asked Cautiously, Abe was ecstatic, "Of course you can, I can pick you up after school tomorrow if you'd like," Abe said with a smile even though Ayden couldn't see

"Great, see you tomorrow, dad," Ayden said, excited

"See you tomorrow, son," Abe's smile got even wider. Ayden hung up the phone after he heard the click of his father hanging up. Gail entered the lounge room just as Ayden hung up the phone.

"Well, what did he say?" she asked

Ayden jumped, he hadn't heard his mother enter the room, and he turned to face her.

"He said he'd pick me up after school," Ayden replied fidgeting with the bandage still on his hand. Gail noticed his fidgeting.

"Sweetie, is your hand still hurting?"She asked coming over to him. Ayden hadn't even noticed until she asked but his hand did hurt.

"A little," he said rubbing the back of his hand

"Here let me take a look," she said, unwrapping the bandage. Ayden made a slight pained sound when Gail pulled off the blood soaked gauze that had stuck to his wounds

"Sorry, sweetheart," she said, fetching the first aid kit. She returned swiftly and sat down to clean Ayden's wounds, she got out the iodine and some fresh gauze, and she put iodine on the gauze and wiped it over the wounds.

"Ow, ow, ah, that stings" Ayden whimpered as the wounds began to bleed again

"I know it stings but it will only hurt for a little bit," Gail shushed, wrapping his hand with a fresh bandage. Later that night, Ayden packed his gym bag with everything he would need to stay with his father for the weekend. He was so excited he hardly slept a wink.

* * *

><p><strong>hello readers in a few chapters time it will be Aydens 16th birthday i have an idea that Abe will give him a car as a present only thing is i don't know what kind of car it should be. so if you have any ideas please message me or put it in your review<br>**

**thanks  
><strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**Howlett home Friday 0800 hrs**

Gail knocked on Ayden's bedroom door. When she had seen that Ayden wasn't at the breakfast table, she had come up to check on him. When he didn't respond, she slowly opened his door to find him still sleeping. "Ayden, sweetie it's time to get up" she said gently shaking him awake.

"Hmm-wha-" Ayden murmured rolling over and opening his eyes.

"Bad night?" she asked perching herself on the edge of bed. She could tell he hasn't slept much, probably due to excitement of staying with his biological father tonight.

"Yeah," he yawned.

"How's your hand feeling?"

"Better," Ayden replied sitting up and stretching.

"All right then. Get dressed and come downstairs, your breakfast is getting cold. And you can probably take that bandage off now." Gail told him as she stood up to leave the room.

Ayden dragged himself out of bed, got dressed and went down to eat. He ate his breakfast, grabbed the large gym bag he had packed for the weekend and headed out to the car. Mike dropped the children at school and went to work.

Ayden entered school and went to his locker to fetch his books. He stood in front of the locker exchanging the maths homework he did last night for his history book. Ayden was putting his history book in his bag when he was suddenly spun and shoved backwards slamming his back against the corner of the locker door.

"You, fishface, I thought we told you we don't wanna see your freak face in our hallway no more." Ricky Jordan growled as he and Bobby Rodgers slammed Ayden against his locker for a second time before stalking off to find their next victim. Ayden slid down to sit on the floor. He had been lying to his mother about being bullied, he told Gail that they only called him names, when in fact Ricky and Bobby would beat him any chance they got, they were careful not to hit Ayden in the face or anywhere else that could not be covered by clothing, so any bruises left couldn't be seen. Ayden sat on the floor in the hallway until the bell rang. He waited until the halls cleared before getting up and making his way to class.

The rest of the school day was pretty much the same between each class. He changed books and was thrown, pushed and body checked into the locker. Ayden found himself thanking every god there was that the day was finally over as the last bell rang. He hurried out of the school and looked for the familiar black Ranger. Ayden spotted his uncles truck and walked over, he could tell it was Thomas's ranger because it had the modified bull bar and grill with blue and red lights on the front and the dash. Abe had been eagerly waiting outside Ayden's school when the bell rang, he sat in Animal's ranger and watched the flood of teenagers exit the school, it wasn't hard to spot Ayden's blue skin in the swarm of adolescence. He stepped out as Ayden neared the vehicle carrying a large gym bag.

"Hi." Ayden said nervously. He struggled with the weight of his bag.

"Hi, do you need some help with that?" Abe asked taking the bag from his son.

"Uh, yeah thanks" Ayden said, becoming aware that some of his classmates were starring at the sudden appearance of a second fish person.

"Shall we head home?" Abe asked closing the back door after putting Ayden's bag inside. Ayden just nodded and climbed into the passenger's seat. Abe got in and they started the drive home, they drove in silence until Abe spoke. "So, what happened back there? You kinda zoned out." Abe asked glancing over at this son.

"Nothing. It's just I hate when people stare." Ayden replied in the tone that said he really didn't want to talk about it.

"So, how was school?" Abe asked trying to strike up conversation again.

"Fine," was all that Ayden said, they arrived home and got out. Abe opened the back door to get Ayden's bag.

"I got it," Ayden said, pushing past Abe to get his bag.

"Okay," Abe said showing his son to the front door. Ayden hoisted his bag over his shoulder and followed Abe into the house.

Down in the basement/lab, Grace heard the front door close, she went upstairs to welcome Ayden properly.

Ayden dropped his bag in the lounge room when Abe told him he could. The father and son stood awkwardly for a moment until Grace entered.

"Good Afternoon Ayden," she greeted.

"Uh, yeah. Good afternoon to you too," he replied, looking around.

"Right, well why don't we go get you settled while your father and Thomas make dinner," she suggested.

"Okay. What? Wait a minute. Thomas can cook?" Ayden asked looking at his father.

"Well, he tries," laughed Grace.

A loud shout of a certain four letter curse word starting with the letter 'F' confirmed that Thomas was indeed in the kitchen trying to cook.

"Language, Grace scolded in the direction of the kitchen.

"Why, oh, sorry," Animal said poking his head out to see is nephew.

Grace led Ayden upstairs to his room while Abe went to check on his brother.

Abe entered the kitchen to find Animal stirring a pot with tomato sauce in it, whilst trying to light a cigarette, there was a tray of something he guessed was at one stage Garlic bread smouldering on the counter, along with a mountain dirty dishes.

"What's this all about?" Abe asked eying the mess his brother had made.

"F**KING STUPID OVEN BURNT THE GARLIC BREAD! Oi, hand me the pasta would ya?" he replied ashing his cigarette in the sink. Abe handed him the box of pasta from the cupboard and started collecting the pots and pans Animal had somehow managed to get a dirty even though he wasn't using them.

Abe put the pots in the sink, rolled up his sleeves and started to wash up.

"I thought you quit smoking months ago." He said putting a pot on the drying rack.

"I did, started back up again," Animal admitted throwing the burnt garlic bread in the trash.

"Why?"

"Cause it helps keep me calm and if I get excited and chase Alex or any other women, Grace is gonna neuter me," he replied, pouring the pasta into a pot of boiling water.

Up in his room Ayden and Grace were unpacking; Ayden put his clothes in the dresser then sat back on the bed to finish unpacking. Grace had left the room to fetch some fresh sheets and blanket so she could remake Ayden's bed. When she returned Ayden had finished unpacking and was decorating his room.

"So, you like sports, I see." She commented looking at what he had brought with him, Ayden had brought his baseball bat, ball and mitt, his basketball and he had also brought a number of ice hockey posters to decorate his room with.

"Yeah, it's kinda obvious, I guess." He laughed standing up to help make is bed.

"Are you any good?" Grace asked tucking the sheets in. "Don't really know, I've only ever played baseball and basketball in the yard with Mike," he answered honestly.

"What about ice hockey" "nah, I like it. But I can't even skate"

"Well that gives us something to laugh at when Abe tries to teach you." She laughed

"Do you think he would?"

"Why don't you ask him?"

"Maybe later,"

"Okay then, why don't you go get yourself cleaned up, dinner should be ready soon,"

"Ok, uh, where's the-"

"The bathroom is down the hall to the left, towels are in the cupboard"

"Thanks,"

Grace went down stairs to check on dinner, while Ayden took a shower. Ayden went into the bathroom, undressed and got in the shower. He sighed as the cool water rushed over his gills, after his shower he wrapped a towel around his waist and snuck back to his room to get dressed. Downstairs Grace entered the kitchen, her eyes immediately fixed on Animal lighting another cigarette.

"What the hell are you doing? No smoking the in the house!" She said scolding before giving him a sharp slap in the back of the head.

"Damn, okay, okay!" he replied putting out the smoke and tucking it behind his ear.

"So, what's for dinner?" she asked.

"Spaghetti ,"Abe answered taking down four plates from the cupboard.

"There was garlic bread, but the stupid oven burnt it!" Animal grumbled.

Abe served up the spaghetti while Grace set the table; Animal emerged from the kitchen with two full plates and set them on the table. "Where's the guppy?" he asked

"He's upstairs, would you go fetch him please?"

Animal went upstairs to tell his nephew dinner was ready. Not thinking he opened Ayden's door without knocking and what he saw worried him.

Ayden had been getting dressed for dinner, he had just put his trousers on and was pulling his shirt on when someone opened his door.

"What the hell-?" both Animal and Ayden started shouted. Ayden whirled around and quickly pulled his shirt on as he tried to slip past his uncle.

"Whoa! WHOA! Hey get back here!" Animal said grabbing Ayden and lifting the back of his shirt. Ayden flinched even though Animal meant him no harm.

"What is this? How'd this happen?" Animal asked turning his nephew around to face him. When Ayden refused to answer, he dragged him downstairs by the arm.

"If you won't tell me, tell him" Animal said, forcing Ayden in front of his father.

"Tell me what?" Abe said concerned that Animal had just dragged his son into the dining room, Ayden looked miserably at the floor.

"See, he won't tell me how it happened either"

"how what happened?" Abe asked confused.

"THIS!" Animal yelled as he turned Ayden around and lifted the back of his shirt to reveal several deep bruises. Abe's mouth fell open in shock; Grace flew off her chair to inspect the bruises covering Ayden's back. Ayden flinched when her fingers ran over a particularly tender bruise. Grace backed off and Animal let go. Ayden turned back around and nervously looked at his father. Abe motioned for Ayden to sit down which he did.

"Ayden how did you get those? Did someone hit you?" Abe asked as calmly as he could. Ayden nodded slowly.

"Who hit you?" Abe asked, his voice warning slightly, Ayden swallowed hard.

"Some guys at school, they used to only call me names, but now they push me into my locker and beat me."

Animal cracked his knuckles. "OH HELL NO! I'M GONNA GO KICK THEIR ASSES!" yelled Animal.

Grace turned quickly to face Animal, her expression yelling 'shut up, you're not helping'.

Animal looked at Ayden apologetically. "Sorry, kiddo. It just ain't right."

Ayden laughed and smiled. "It's all right. But can you please not tell Gail" Ayden begged.

"Listen, I won't tell Gail if you don't want me to, but you have to promise me you will tell me if this happens again. Alright?" Abe said.

"Yeah, I promise. And thank you" Ayden whispered smiling slightly. "Well, now that is settled, let's eat!" Animal said shovelling spaghetti into his mouth, getting more on his face than actually in his mouth.

Ayden tried but couldn't suppress a laugh at his uncles messy eating habits. He laughed out loud lightening the atmosphere in the room. After dinner, Ayden helped Grace wash the dishes, then sat down to watch Family guy with her and Animal. Abe was off to the side reading a book. Grace gently nudged Ayden when a commercial for a sports store winter sale played on TV.

"Ask him," she whispered.

"Ask him what?" he whispered back.

"Ask him to teach you how to skate,"

Ayden waited til another ad come on. "Umm, dad?"

"Hmm, what is it?" Abe asked before looking up from his book.

"Do you think that maybe-" he stammered

"Spit it out already!" Animal said

"Would you be able to teach me how to skate?" Ayden asked.

Abe set his book down on the table and leaning forward in his chair. "Why do you want to learn how to skate?" asked Abe rubbing his forehead.

"Cause I really like ice hockey, and I thought maybe if I can learn how to skate, then maybe the school will let me play for them, and I won't get picked on anymore," Ayden blurted out.

"Hey, slowdown, it's not even winter yet," Animal said.

"Winter's only a month away, it's already cold. The pool will be frozen over before we know it." Grace smiled

"Please," Ayden begged

"You really want to learn how to skate?" Abe asked. Ayden nodded and Abe sighed. "Well I don't know much about hockey, but I'll do my best to teach you how to skate."

"Really? Thanks dad!"

Abe smiled and went back to reading his book while the others watched TV. About 10:30 Abe sent Ayden to bed telling him they had a big day tomorrow. Ayden climbed the stairs, brushed his teeth and went to his room. He changed into his old Minnesota wild night shirt and some sweatpants before climbing into bed and falling into a deep sleep.

Ayden slowly woke to the aromas of food cooking. He couldn't tell exactly what it was that was cooking, all he knew was it smelt good and he wanted it. He got up and followed the heavenly scent downstairs.

"Mmm, what smell so good?" he asked, walking into the dining room, only to realise no one was there.

"That would be breakfast," Grace said, entering from the kitchen carrying plate full's of bacon, eggs and pancakes.

"Need some help?" Ayden asked

"That would be good, thanks," she replied handing him tow of the plates. Ayden took the plates and put them on the table. A thud was heard from upstairs followed by heavy footsteps and another softer thud.

"Hmm, sounds like the others are up," Grace said, setting down the two plates she had on the table. A few moments later Abe and Animal came down the stairs still in their sleeping clothes, Abe wore an old shirt and sweat pants like Ayden, while Animal wore only a pair of sweat pants, his tail hanging from a hole in the back.

"So Ayden, did you sleep well?" Abe asked as they all sat down to eat.

'Yes, thank you" Ayden replied starting in on his plate of food.

"Good, cause we've got a surprise for you," Abe hinted.

"What?" Ayden asked warily.

"Well, today we are going to get you some skates and going to the ice rink,"

"But isn't it closed?" Ayden quivered

"We have our ways," Animal smirked

After breakfast Abe, Animal and Ayden got ready, climbed in the Ranger and headed to the sports store.

"Damn, there's a lot of people here," Animal pointed out as they parked and got out. A number of customers stared at the usual three as they made their way towards the hockey equipment.

"What's your size?" Abe enquired, looking at the skates.

"Nine and a half" Ayden replied, sitting down and taking off his sneakers. Abe handed his son a pair of black Pro Elite Skates and sat down with a size 11 pair of his own. Animal had wandered off to look at the hockey sticks, when he returned he was carrying 3 Easton band hockey sticks and a puck.

"What are these for?" Abe asked as Animal put the sticks down beside him.

"Guppy wants to play hockey, he's gonna need a stick" he replied looking for some skates in his size.

"But why did you get three?"

"How else is he gonna learn, and I'm not letting you have all the fun."

After making sure the skates fit, they quickly paid and left, not wanting to be in the crowd of onlookers any longer than necessary. The three climbed into the ranger and drove to the ice rink.

"So, how are we going to get in?" Ayden asked.

"Easy, Grace is going to meet us in there, she flashes her badge and we're in." Animal smirked.

"Badge? What like a police badge? Are you guy's cops or something? Is that why your truck has lights on it?" Ayden asked leaning into the front.

"Well, yes we are but we don't have that kinda pull. Grace however does, she still registered with the FBI." Abe clarified.

"Wow, really?" Ayden asked as they pulled in.

"Yes, really." Abe replied as they got out to meet Grace.

"Wicked."

"You, guys really need to go in," Grace called.

The guys grabbed their gear and walked over to her, "Don't you need to show your badge to the owner or something?" Animal asked.

"Already did," she said, jingling the keys to the ice rink before showing them inside. Abe, Animal and Ayden laced up their skates. Animal was the first to step out onto the ice, he wobbled a little but soon his feline qualities kicked in and he could keep balance and skate easily.

"Come on guys, it's easy," he laughed.

Tentatively, Abe and Ayden stepped out onto the ice. Abe was unsteady but he managed to stay on his feet. Ayden, however, slipped up. "Easy buddy" Abe laughed, trying to help his son up only to be pulled off balance by Ayden's extra weight. Grace laughed as she watched Abe and Ayden scramble , trying to desperately to get to their feet. It was like watching a slapstick comedy show. Animal skated over to help; he easily pulled Abe to his feet, and then helped his nephew. Ayden gripped Animal's shirt tightly as he was helped up.

"You can let go," Animal joked, prying Ayden's hands off his shirt.

"NO!" Don't let go," Ayden cried latching on to his uncle's arm. Abe made his way closer and took hold of Ayden's shoulder to help him balance. Grace laughed hysterically as his extra weight caused all three to fall into a heap.

"Nice going genius!" Animal grumbled getting to his feet and helping his brother up again.

"Sorry, I was just trying to keep him steady," Abe said as they both lifted Ayden to stand and held him steady.

"Guess I'm not meant to play hockey after all." Ayden said, disappointed.

"Don't give up yet, just do what I do, it's just one foot then the other," Animal said demonstrating. Ayden copied his uncle. After several embarrassing falls and a couple of hours, Ayden was able to skate reasonably well on his own. Abe, Animal and Grace watched as he skated around the rink.

"He's getting better," Grace said.

"What can I say, he a fast learner," Abe replied.

"Just like his daddy," Grace teased, making Animal and Abe laugh.

"Guppy, come here," Animal hollered, waving his nephew over.

"What?" Ayden asked, skating over.

"Nothing, just thought you'd like to try one of these?" Animal said reaching over the barrier to retrieve the sticks.

"Here ya go," he said handing one to Abe and Ayden.

"Really? Thanks!" Ayden said admiring his first ever hockey stick.

"Why don't you try and get a feel for it," Abe said. Ayden skated around for a while with his new stick weaving in and out.

"He's getting good," Abe said watching his son.

"Yeah, let's go see how he goes against a little competition," Animal said fishing the puck he bought earlier out of his pocket as he dropped it on the ice.

"Yo, Guppy," he shouted. Ayden sprayed ice as he skidded to a halt. "One on one, you and me," Animal dared skating over to his nephew with the puck.

"Okay, you're on," Ayden replied before snatching the puck and skating off with it.

"You little sneak" Animal growled playfully taking off after him.

Ayden and Animal were having so much fun passing the puck and chasing each other around, Abe couldn't resist and joined in. They played around for hours, by the end Ayden had gotten quite good. They packed up their gear and Grace gave the keys back to the owner.

"The uhh, kid is really good. Are you looking to sign him up for a team?" the owner asked, not sure exactly what to call the unusual looking teenager.

"Well, actually he was hoping to join his school's hockey team," Grace replied.

"Which school?" the owner asked

"Um, Brainerd High, why?"

"Ah, the Warriors. I've known coach Brody for years, I'll put in a good word for him," the owner offered.

"Oh thank you, Uh Mr..?"

"Jim, Jim Spitz" he replied offering his hand. Grace smiled and shook.

"Thank you Mr Spitz"

"So, what's his name?" Jim queried as the others approached from, behind Grace. The boys stopped to stand besides Grace.

"His name is Ayden," she told him, nudging Ayden towards Jim.

"Hi," Jim said shaking Ayden's hand

"Uh, yeah, hi," replied Ayden shyly.

"Abe, Jim here knows the coach of the hockey team, and he says he'll put in a good word for Ayden." Grace informed them.

"Thank you," Abe said shaking Jim's hand. Off to the side, Ayden yawned loudly.

"We should probably get going," Grace said looking at Ayden's tired eyes. The sky was starting to go dark when they left.

On the drive home, Abe looked into the backseat when he noticed Ayden was being extremely quiet, he turned back around to face forward with a smile.

"What's with the smile?" Animal asked glaring over at his brother.

"Look in the back seat," he replied nodding towards the backseat.

Animal adjusted the rear view mirror to see Ayden asleep in the back his head resting against the cool glass of the windows.

They arrived home and got out, Abe carefully opened the Ranger's backdoor. "Ayden, buddy we're home' Abe said quietly, taking off Ayden's seatbelt.

"Hmm daddy?" Ayden moaned rolling slightly t6o the side almost falling out of the truck only to be caught by his father. Still half asleep Ayden instinctively wrapped his legs around his father's midsection and his arms around his neck he clung to Abe like an overtired five year old. Abe being stronger than a normal human easily carried his son upstairs and put him to bed. Ayden stirred when Abe laid him down, he opened his eyes to peer groggily up at his father,

"What-" he slurred.

"Ayden, it's okay, you fell asleep, just rest I'll come get you when dinner's ready," Abe whispered.

"Okay" Ayden yawned as Abe left the room and went downstairs. Grace was looking through a number of the take out menus when Abe entered the kitchen.

"So what are we having?" Abe asked.

"I've narrowed it down to pizza or chinese,"

"Well what do you want?"

"I don't know, how about chinese?" she suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," Abe said handing over the phone. Grace phoned through their order while Abe went to wait in the lounge room with his brother.

"How's the guppy?" Animal asked as Abe walked in.

"Exhausted," Abe replied sitting on the couch, he was too tired to read so he settled for watching whatever Animal had playing on the TV.

"What are we watching," Abe asked.

"Cops. HA! Look at the fat guy" Animal laughed watching the officer on TV chase a suspect. Abe and Animal watched TV until the door bell rang. Grace answered the door, payed the delivery boy and took their order. She carried the food into the dining room and put it on the table while she fetched some plastic plates from the kitchen, when she returned Animal was pawing through though containers of chinese.

"Thomas, get out of there!" she scolded setting the plates down.

"Damn, busted." He said as Abe walked in.

"Grace, I'm gonna go wake Ayden" Abe said, Grace nodded as Abe climbed the stairs and went to his son's room.

"Ayden, wake up. Time for dinner" he said opening the door.

Ayden was sleep snoring softly, he had rolled over since Abe had put him to bed. Abe gently shook his son.

"Huh," Ayden snorted, waking up.

"It's okay buddy. It's time for dinner"

"What are we having?" he yawned.

"Take out, now come eat, then you can sleep all you like," Abe said giving him a goofy half smile.

Ayden chuckled which turned into another yawn half way. Ayden followed his father down the stairs. They entered the dining room and sat down. Ayden looked at the containers of food they all look the same to him, well, except the fried rice.

"What's this?" he asked, looking suspiciously into one container.

"That's Mongolian lamb," Grace answered, Ayden poured a small amount on his plate.

"What about this one?"

"Barbeque pork in plum sauce," Ayden put some pork on his plate and some rice. He picked up the chopsticks from beside his plate. Ayden watched Grace and tried to copy her movements. He tried as hard as he could, but just couldn't keep hold of his food. Ayden huffed and threw down the chopsticks, Animal snickered from across the table.

"Here guppy," he laughed as he handed Ayden a plastic fork.

"Thanks," Ayden replied, looking a little embarrassed.

"Don't worry, it took me a while to learn how to use chopsticks," Abe said.

"Could you teach me?" Ayden asked.

"Sure, he hold it like this," Abe said putting the chopsticks into Ayden's hands and moving his fingers to grip them properly.

"Yeah."

"Now try and pick something up,"

Ayden picked up a piece of pork and popped into his mouth.

"There ya go," Animal praised reaching for his third spring roll.

"Uncle Thomas," Ayden said as Animal shoved almost the whole spring roll in his mouth.

"Huh?" Animal chocked his mouth still full.

"How come you aren't using chopsticks?"

"Cause he can't shove enough food in his mouth with them," Grace laughed, making everyone else laugh. They finished eating then everyone besides Abe went to bed.

**Several Hours Later**

Grace awoke to realise the light downstairs were still on.

"Damn it, I told them to turn those off." She grumble getting up and putting on her robe. Grace stormed downstairs, she stomped into the dining room intent on giving who it was that was still up a piece of her mind. Grace stopped in her tracks when she saw Abe sitting at the table with a folder.

"Hey, what's going on what's with the folder?" she asked softly, approaching the table.

"Huh? What?" Abe stammered looking up. Grace sat down and looked over at the folder. The name on the folder worried her deeply.

"Abe, why are you looking at this?" she asked pointing at the folder which read LOUISE DEFONE.

"I-I couldn't sleep." He said getting up to make himself a cup of tea.

Grace followed him into the kitchen?

"You know, that really doesn't answer, my question. Now what's going on?" Grace pressed perching herself on the counter. Abe sighed heavily and leaned against the counter top.

"I've been thinking, Ayden's mother, she had parents. I mean I went for a fifteen years without even knowing I had a child. And now, I don't even know what I'd do if I lost him. They did lose their child, and they don't even know their grandson is alive." He said his heart heavy.

Grace could see the pain in Abe's eyes. She knew then what they had to do. Abe made his tea and they went back to the folder. Grace flipped open the folder to see the picture of Louise.

"He has her eyes," she pointed out.

"I want Ayden to meet his grandparents, but I'm afraid of what their reaction might be." Abe sighed.

"I could speak with them first, you know prepare them.' She suggested.

"Dad?" a voice called from the door.

Both Abe and Grace jumped and turned to face the doorway. Neither of them had heard Ayden enter.

"Ayden, what are you doing up at this hour?" Abe asked.

"I went to the bathroom and saw the light was on." He replied walking over to the table.

Abe tried to cover the folder as Ayden sat down across from him.

"What's in the folder?" Ayden asked when he saw his father was trying to hide it; he looked to Grace when Abe didn't answer.

"Abe, show him." Grace said softly, placing her hand on his.

Abe sighed and slide the folder across to his son, Ayden opened the folder.

"Who is she?" he asked staring the photographed young woman. He didn't know why but he felt a deep connection with her, she had beautiful long auburn hair, striking features and gorgeous blue eyes.

"Your mother," Abe said softly.

"My mother?" Ayden echoed still staring at the photo.

"Ayden?" Grace called breaking his hypnotic trance with the picture.

"Huh?"

"Ayden, we know you've been through a lot in the last few weeks, but do you think you could handle meeting your mother's parents?" she asked.

"My grandparents? I guess so, why?" he replied.

"It's just.. Never mind." Abe said.

"You should go back to bed," Grace told Ayden.

Ayden nodded, grabbed a bottle of water and headed back upstairs to dream about his mother.

"See Abe, you were worried over nothing."

"It's not his reaction I'm worried about, it's theirs. They don't know he's you know… different," Abe replied once he was sure his son was out of earshot.

"Well maybe it's time they found out."

"What if they freak out?"

"Look you're working yourself over nothing. I told you I would talk to them first."

"I know, I'm sorry. It's just this stuff is hard."

"It's okay Abe, parenting is meant to be hard. It'll all work out in the end. I promise now come and get some sleep," she said tugging on his arm. Abe stood and allowed Grace to drag him up to his room.

"Goodnight," she said before returning to her room to go back to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

Sunday

0830hrs

Grace woke to her alarm blearing some obnoxious hip hop song. She climbed out of bed , put on her robe and went to Animal's room.

"Thomas, wake up," she whispered, gently shaking him.

"What?" he mumbled.

"Get up; we're going to see some people."

"Five more minutes," he moaned, rolling over.

"No, now," she said, giving his tail a sharp tug.

"Ow, hey, that's attached you know," he said, getting up and changing his clothes. Grace left the room, got dressed then went downstairs

Grace walked into the kitchen to find Animal devouring a whole box of poptarts

"Do you ever stop eating?" Grace asked

"Mmm, no. So where are we going?" Animal replied, shoving another whole poptart in his mouth.

"We are going to speak with Ayden's grandparents, and you do know those aren't good for you?"

Animal looked down at the poptart in his hand, "Meh, shouldn't Abe be going?"

"Abe's afraid they might freak out, so we are going to speak with them first and prepare them," she said. They got in the Monaro, Animal followed Grace's directions and they soon arrived at the Defon residence

"Okay, just let me do the talking, hide your tail and put your cap on," Grace told him before getting out. Animal did as he was told and followed Grace to the front door.

Grace knocked on the door, after a few moments the door clicked and opened to reveal a sweet looking elderly woman, "May i help you?" she asked

"Hello, Mrs. Defone, we are with the police department may we come in?"

"Of course, please call me Christine," she said, leading them into the lounge room. Animal and Grace followed Christine into the room.

"Henry, we have company," Christine said as they walked in. Christine's husband Henry looked up from his morning paper to see two people following his wife into the room.

"Good day Mr. Defone, my name is Grace Moore and this is Thomas Sapien, we are with the police department," Grace said

"What would the police want with us?" Henry said as the others sat down.

"Actually Mr. and Mrs. Defone we are here about your daughter," Grace said

"Louise? Did you find the murderer?" Christine asked expectedly

"I am terribly sorry, but that's not why we are here,"

"Then why are you here?" Henry asked confused

"This may be difficult for you but, when your daughter was found the autopsy report said she had recently given birth,"

"Yes, we remember," Henry said, holding his wife's hand

"They didn't find the baby," Christine sniffled

"That's why we are here; your grandchild was found a few miles from the river,"

"This may be a strange request but may we see the remains,"

"Remains? Mr. and Mrs. Defone, your grandson is alive,"

"Alive, but how?"

"He was found and taken in by a family a few days before your daughter's body was found,"

"Could we see him please," Christine begged.

"Yes of course, we will take you to see him," Grace said, standing up.

"What's his name?" Christine asked, standing up with her husband.

"Ayden," Grace smiled and lead the others back outside. Henry and Christine followed Animal and Grace out to the cars where they got in their car and followed them back to meet Ayden.

When Abe awoke, Grace and Animal had already left. He got himself ready and went to wake his son.

"Ayden, time to get up buddy,"

Ayden rolled over and looked at his father, "What time is it?"

"Ten o'clock, come on get up and put on a good shirt,"

Ayden got up, had a shower, dressed in his good clothes and went downstairs to join Abe for breakfast. He made himself a bowl of cereal and sat at the table across from his father.

"Uh dad, why are we dressed up?" Ayden asked when he noticed Abe also dressed up.

"You remember last night when we asked if you would be able to handle meeting your grandparents?"

"Yeah,"

"Well this morning, Grace and Thomas have gone to speak with them and bring them back here to meet you," Abe said

"Really?"

"Yes, they should be here soon,"

"Do they know I'm, uh, different?" Ayden asked

"I think it would be best if we stay in the kitchen until Grace has a chance to explain to them about us, okay?" Abe explained. Ayden nodded in understanding. Ayden finished his breakfast and went into the kitchen to wash his bowl, he was just about to walk into the lounge room when Abe came rushing through the door.

"What's going on?" Ayden asked.

"They're here," Abe said in a hushed tone, motioning for Ayden to keep quiet.

"Here we are!" Grace announced, opening the door and ushering the Defone's inside.

"Thank you, dear," Christine said as they walked in.

"So where is this boy?" Henry asked, eager to meet his grandson.

"Before I bring Ayden in, there is something you must know about him," Grace said, leading them into the lounge room.

"What is it?" Christine asked curiously, sitting down next to her husband.

Grace sat down across from them, while Animal went into the kitchen, "Well, you see, we've found some evidence that show Ayden was experimented on. And the side effects were passed on to your grandson,"

"Experimented on? Oh my goodness!" Christine cried

"You said the effects were passed on, what kind of effects?" Henry asked, concerned.

"Ayden, is, well, he's a little different looking," Grace said.

"Different looking. What the hell does that mean?" Henry snapped

"It's probably best if we just show you," Grace said, standing up to fetch Ayden.

"So how's it going with the grandparents?" Animal asked as Grace walked in to the kitchen.

"Well, providing Ayden doesn't make any sudden moves, I think they're ready," she said.

"Ayden, do you think you're ready?" Abe asked. Ayden nodded in response.

"Yeah, I think so," he said

Grace came over and patted Ayden's shoulder, "You'll be alright, just wait for me to call you," she said leading him to the door.

"Okay," he replied. His voice was a little shaky.

The Defones looked up as Grace entered the room. "Well, where is he?"Henry asked, holding his wife's hand.

"Ayden, come in and meet your grandparents," Grace called towards the door.

"Please don't be afraid," a young voice called, before the door slowly swung open to reveal a strange looking young man. Very slowly, Ayden walked over and stood next to Grace.

"Mr. and Mrs. Defone, allow me to introduce your grandson Ayden," Grace said, Ayden gave an uneasy wave. Henry and Christine stared wide eyed at the unusually coloured boy.

"Uhh, hi," Ayden offered, giving his hand a slight wave.

"God damn," Henry whispered as he watched Ayden stand nervously beside Grace.

"Please don't be afraid of me," Ayden said. Christine could see just how nervous Ayden was, slowly she got up and walked over to him. He flinched as she brought her hands up on either side of his face.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you," Christine whispered before taking hold of his face and looking into his eyes. "You have your mother's eyes," she said, smiling sadly. Ayden smiled back. Christine let go of Ayden's face and hugged him. Christine broke off the hug and went back to sit next to her husband while Ayden and Grace sat across from them.

"No offence but how did this happen?" Henry asked. Grace then proceeded to fill in the Defones on how the doctor had impregnated their daughter with Abe's DNA.

"Wait a minute, there are more like Ayden?" Henry said surprised.

"Abe, Thomas, you can come out now," Grace called.

Everyone looked over as the kitchen door opened and Abe and Animal walked over to them, Animal's tail and ears were still hidden.

"Henry and Christine Defone, this is Abraham Sapien and his brother Thomas." Grace said, Animal and Abe both shook Henry's hand.

"How can you be brothers, you look nothing alike?" Christine asked

Abe and Animal looked at each other and shrugged, "Different DNA mix," Animal said indifferently.

"But you're human."

"Not exactly," Animal chuckled, taking off his cap and revealing his tail.

All six spent the rest of the day getting to know one and other. That night everyone went to bed exhausted.


	13. Chapter 13

**ok here's where i start spilling my excuses, 1. my grandfather passed away last month, 2. my sister had a baby, and 3. after 21 years of living a lie i came out as transgender to my family, i haven't been able to update due to the various doctors appointments and such to correct the fact that i was born into the wrong body. hopefully i will not lose any of my much valued readers all because i have decided to finally be myself, and thank you to innocentlaw for your continuing encouragement and acceptance.**

**Thats enough sappy stuff now on with the story**

* * *

><p>Monday<p>

0700hrs

Abe was in the kitchen when Ayden came down from getting ready and packing his bag. "Have you got everything?" Abe asked, taking a sip from his coffee.

"Yes." Ayden replied as he made himself a bowl of cereal. A sudden loud crash followed by a string of curse words sent both father and son rushing to the stairs. As they rounded the corner they found a less than happy Animal sprawled out on the floor.

"What happened to you?" Abe chuckled, standing over his brother.

"Guppy left his bag on the stairs." Animal grumbled, getting to his feet.

"What's going on down there?" Grace asked, appearing at the top of the stairs in her robe.

"It's okay, Thomas just tripped over," Abe replied back before turning to Ayden. "Why don't you put this in the truck before someone else falls over it?" He said, picking up the bag and handing it to his son. Ayden took his bag and went to put it in the truck. When he returned everyone was in the kitchen. Abe was on the phone to Gail while Animal and Grace were making coffee. Ayden sat at the counter and finished the rest of his cereal. Abe hung up the phone and grabbed a paper bag from the counter and dropped it in front of Ayden.

"What's this?" Ayden asked, eyeing the bag.

"Your lunch." Abe replied.

"My lunch? You actually made my lunch?" Ayden stammered disbelievingly.

"Well, yes, isn't that what parents do?"

But before Ayden could reply, Grace's phone rang and she left the room to take the call. "Who was that?" Animal asked when she came back.

"That was Carter, he said he needs to speak urgently with Abe and I, sooo you will have to take Ayden to school and we'll meet you at the compound." Grace replied

"Alright then, let's go." Animal sighed, grabbing his keys off the bench. Ayden picked up his lunch and followed his uncle out to the ranger.

On the drive to school Ayden gave the paper bag that held his home made lunch an uneasy look. Animal stopped the truck in front of the school; Ayden climbed out, grabbed his bag and headed towards the front doors.

"Hey Guppy wait a sec." Animal shouted climbing out of the vehicle. Ayden spun around to see his uncle hurriedly approaching him with his tail and ears hidden.

"What's wrong?" Ayden asked as Animal stopped in front of him.

"Here, I don't know what your father was thinking." Animal said pushing some money into his nephews hand before climbing back into the Ranger and driving off to meet Abe and Grace. Ayden pocketed the cash and went inside, he grabbed his books went to English.

Walking into class Ayden noticed Mrs. Stiner was unusually excited and there was a large stack of forms on her desk.

"Good morning class, I am very excited to announce that in two weeks the whole class plus some parents, who have volunteered to be chaperones, will be going on a field trip to the special weapons and tactics training compound, where you will meet real swat officers," Mrs. Stiner said, barely able to contain herself. Excited murmuring broke out among the students. "Now you will all need to have these forms filled out and returned as soon as possible so we can start organizing the field trip." Mrs. Stiner said as she began to hand out the forms.

SWAT Training Compound

Same time.

"Abe, Grace, thanks for getting here so quick." Carter said, leading them to his office.

"What's so urgent?" Abe asked, taking a seat.

"Some people came here earlier this morning. They looked like they were from the government, they were asking about any weird looking teenagers in the area. I think they might be looking for your kid. Ii told them I'd let them know if I heard anything."

"Do you know where they were from?" asked Grace

"Yeah, they left me this card," Carter said, opening up a draw in his desk and fishing the card out of it before handing it to Abe. Abe studied the card and frowned as he noticed the letters B.P.R.D were stamped across it. "Any idea who they are?" Carter asked.

"Yes, they were from where we used to work." Abe answered grimly.

The sounds of vehicles stopping outside alerted them that the other officers had arrived for training. Abe, Grace and Carter came out to greet the others just as Animal arrived.

"Good morning everyone," Carter greeted. "Well, it seems the big bosses have decided that we are to play babysitter to a bunch of school students when they come here on a field trip in two weeks." Carter announced.

"Great, that's just what we need a bunch of kids hanging around." Blake scoffed.

"Now, now, I know no one wants to do this but there is nothing we can do about it, end of discussion," Carter said, "Now let's get moving."

During training, Abe and grace told Animal about the agents who left their card with Carter. "Manning, that rat, I knew he'd come after the Guppy." Animal snarled dropping the weight he had been lifting.

"Thomas, calm down." Grace said gently, not wanting to make scene.

"If they lay one finger on him I'll -" Animal trailed off as he was suddenly distracted. Alex had walked in wearing a tight tank top. Grace noticed Animal's breathing had sped up and his tail was twitching. Acting fast before his instincts caused him to do something stupid she got his cigarettes and sent him outside to calm down. He sat down on a bench outside lit a smoke and took a long drag. Animal sighed and closed his eyes as he felt the nicotine course through his veins and relax his tormented mind. He was almost calm enough to go back inside until someone sat beside him. Animal didn't need to open his eyes to know who it was; he'd know the scent of his angel anywhere.

"I didn't know you smoked." Alex said as she sat beside him.

Animal opened his eyes and stared at her unable to look away.

"Could I have one of those? I left mine at home." Alex asked gesturing towards Animals pack of cigarettes. Animal still hypnotized, just held out his pack

"Thanks." Alex said, plucking a smoke from the pack.

"Do you have a light?"

Animal shook his head to clear his mind. "Uhh, yeah. Here." Animal replied lighting Alex's cigarette, he felt his breath speed up again, he was losing the battle with his instincts and he knew it.

"So how've you been?" Alex asked casually after taking a drag from her cigarette.

"Can I hug you?" Animal suddenly blurted out.

"What?"

"Please, I'm really trying to behave, but," he paused before sighing heavily. "but I like you"

Alex stared with wide eyes at Animal. Grace had warned her about Thomas instincts and how they could affect him. She had the emergency beeper Grace had given her, so she decided to take a chance.

"Let me get this straight, you like me and want to hug me, right?" Animal nodded eagerly. Alex sighed. "Okay, but you have to let go when I say, and no funny stuff with your tail."

"Uh-huh" Animal nodded and stood up. Alex crushed out her cigarette and stood up as well. Slowly they came closer, Animal wrapped his arms around Alex's shoulders and carefully pulled her close. Alex returned the favour by putting her arm around his neck. Alex was surprised at how gentle Thomas was being considering what happened last time. Thomas lowered his head to rest his chain on her shoulder and took a deep breath through his nose, getting as much of her cent as he could. They stood wrapped in each other's arms for almost a minute, with Animal's tail slowly swaying behind him.

"Uh, Thomas, time to let go now." Alex said, pulling away slightly.

Animal didn't let go, but didn't tighten his grip either

"Just a few more seconds, please." he whispered

"Okay." Alex whispered back.

When they broke apart Alex took the time to look at Thomas, he looked much calmer and relaxed.

"Thank you," Animal said before starting to walk back inside.

Alex looked at Animal's retreating form and something inside her snapped.

"Thomas, wait up," she called, chasing after him. Animal turned to face her. "Look, Grace told me about your instincts, and if a hug every now and then keeps you calm enough that you don't jump me and carry me off then all you have to do is ask, okay?" Alex told him

Animal nodded and wrapped Alex in another hug.

"Hey, hey, easy there big guy." Alex laughed, pushing him away.

"Sorry." he said sheepishly, Alex smiled and ruffled Animals hair causing his ears to flop around.

"Come on let's get back inside before they think we got lost." Alex said as they walked back inside.

Howlett House

Same Day

1600hrs

Gail waited until Ayden had finished unpacking and had come back downstairs. "How was your weekend?" She asked.

"It was great. Dad and Uncle Thomas taught me to skate, bought me my first hockey stick and I learned how to use chopsticks." Ayden said proudly.

"Well, it sounds like you had fun."

"Yeah, oh here Mrs Stiner wants out parent to fill these out so we can go on a trip." he said, handing Gail the forms his teacher had given him.

"Where is this field trip to?"

"The SWAT training compound, it's going to be awesome, can I go?"

"I don't know, it says you will be shooting real guns." Gail said, concerned.

"It's okay Mum, there will be people supervising us."

"Hmm"

"Please Mum." he begged

"Alright you can go."


	14. Chapter 14

**wow i did loose some readers, ah well their loss. as always please read and review, and thanks to those who are human enough to have stayed with me, enjoy**

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><p><strong>Two weeks later<strong>

**Howlett Home ,2030 hrs**

Ayden had just finished unpacking from what had become his regular weekend visit with Abe. Outside, the weather had started to change. The days were slightly shorter and light snow had started to fall at night. Ayden was so excited; tomorrow was the class field trip. He had brushed his teeth quickly and went straight to bed. The next morning after getting ready he practically flew downstairs for breakfast.

"Ayden, slow down" Gail chastised when she saw Ayden was practically inhaling his food. Ayden gulped what he had in his mouth and looked at her apologetically. After breakfast Mike dropped the kids off at school. Ayden hurried to assembly hall to get his name marked off with the rest of his class before boarding the bus for the field trip. On the bus ride Ayden was stared at relentlessly by the few parents who were there to chaperone, he ignored them and tried to focus on how much fun he would have today.

**SWAT Training Compound, 1000 hrs**

"Hey, hurry up guys, those kids will be here any minute" Carter shouted into the locker room.

"Were coming, ahh, damn it" Animal shouted back trying to wrestle his gas mask on, Abe was also having trouble. They managed to get outside just as the bus pulled in. Ayden filled off the bus with the other students, but was forced to the back of the crowd, where he could hear someone talking but couldn't see anything. Ayden slowly started to push his way towards the front so he could see what was going on.

"Get out of the way, fish boy" one of the student scoffed pushing Ayden forward into the dirt. Abe moved forward to help Ayden up.

"Heh heh, that's showing 'em." one father laughed. Ayden took the hand that the officer held out and pulled himself back to his feet.

"Parents like you are why children grow up to be racist" Abe said to the man.

"Who the hell are you to tell me how my kid should treat freaks like that?" the father yelled. Animal watched as the other fathers crowded behind the irritated man. He could tell this was going to end in a fight.

"Well, if you must know" Abe said taking off his mask revealing himself to the stunned students and parents.

"_Dad_?" Ayden said shocked.

"Oh great, _another_ freak. And _this _one thinks he can tell us how to raise our kids. Hey guys, what do you think we should do with this fish fillet" The father said getting in Abe's face. Suddenly the man shoved Abe to the ground.

"Yeah, Rick! Show that freak whose boss." one father cheered. Abe started to get up only to be sucker punched back down, Animal growled in warning under his mask. Carter held the other officers back, giving them a look that said not to get involved. Abe tried to get up again, and Rick went for another swing; this time however, Abe caught his fist mid-swing.

"Try that again and I'll be forced to arrest you." Abe said calmly not wanting to stoop to the others level by resorting to violence.

"Tough guy huh? Lets see you try that with us." One father said approaching with a couple others.

"Gentlemen, this is none of your concern" Abe said before being struck again. The group of angry fathers swarmed on Abe. Animal tore off his mask and flew into action. He rushed forward and threw the frenzied men one by one away from his brother. The men cowered back as Animal stood protectively in front of Abe growling and snarling viciously.

"What the fuck?! These freaks are multiplying!" the still angry leader of the men yelled. Before lashing out at Animal and Abe, Animal wrestled the men to the ground.

"You are under arrest for assaulting an officer." he growled cuffing the mans hands behind his back and calling for a squad car to come pick the man up.

"Let me go you freak son of a bitch!" the man yelled. Animal motioned for Alex to hand him a roll of tape from the SWAT command truck, which she did.

"You have the right to remain silent, so shut the _fuck_ up" he said smoothly putting tape across the mans mouth. The father continued to struggle as Animal read him his rights. "You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one on, we will provide you with the dumbest mother fucker on earth." Animal said dropped the man in the squad car. Abe dusted himself off and moved back to the rest of the officers.

"Right. Now, if there are no further interruptions, please allowed me to welcome you the Minnesota special weapons and tactics-training compound. Today you will observe how our officers train, and under close supervision you will be allowed to fire a selection of fire arms used by myself and my team." Carter said in a official tone. Animal returned from handing over the father who had started the fight, he nodded at Carter and stood next to Alex. "Okay then, I believe introductions are in order" Carter said motioning for the others to reveal themselves. The other officers removed their masks. "This is officer Blake West," Carter announced as Blake stood forward. "Officer Scott Greenlaw," Scott also stood forward. "and Officer Alexia Sota"

"Call me Alex" she said stepping forward "And these two gentlemen are Abraham and Thomas Sapien. As you probably all noticed, Abraham is Ayden's father. Oh and this is Doctor Grace Moore our team doctor. Now that we have all been introduced, we can start the tour. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I got one. Can I get outta this?" asked Animal, wanting rid of his heavy equipment. Carter chuckled.

"Yes, I think it would be best if you were all in your training clothes." All the officers filed inside to put their gear away. "Now, any more questions?" Carter asked.

"When do we get to use the guns?" one boy asked. "Later" was the reply. Abe, Animal and the rest of the officers exited the locker room building and stood beside Carter once again. "Okay, let's get started." The students listened to Carter as they followed the officers around the compound.

"So, your dad's a cop?" a voice asked, drawing Ayden's attention from what was being said. He turned around to see who was talking to him. To his surprise it was Marie who had spoken.

"Uh yeah, he is. I mean I knew he was a cop, but I didn't know he was SWAT." Ayden replied as they slowed and fell behind the rest of the group.

"Strange, he doesn't seem like the type."

"What do you mean?" Ayden asked.

"Relax. I mean your dad doesn't seem as dangerous as the other, especially the guy with the ears. He's crazy." Ayden chuckled.

"Yeah, Uncle Thomas is a little wild, but he's a good guy."

"Wait, he's your uncle? How is that possible?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story."

"It's kind of a large compound." Marie replied flirting a little.

"Okay, okay." The two trailed along behind the group, Marie listening intently as Ayden told her how the unusual family came to be.

"Wow, so are you like some sort of super solider too?"

"No, no, no. Well not exactly. Yes, I look different and I can breathe underwater, but Grace says that because mum was human, my DNA is more human, too."

"You can breathe underwater? That's so cool."

"Yeah, we should go swimming together when it gets warmer so I can show you."

"Hmm, just might take you up on that offer when it warms up." Marie stated, smiling seductively. Ayden felt his face heat up and had to stuff his hands in his pockets to hide how excited her flirting was making him.

"Ayden, Marie, try and keep up with the rest of the class" Mrs Stiner called. Ayden and Marie hurried to catch up with the class as Carter stood in front of the students.

"Okay guys and girls, were going to break for lunch and then well begin to show you some of our training displays." Ayden and Marie followed the others into the cafeteria. They lined up together to get their food, then found a table and sat to eat. The fact that Ayden was sitting and talking with a girl did not go unnoticed by his father or his uncle. "Guppy seems to be doing pretty good over there." Animal said sitting across from Abe with his lunch tray piled high.

"Yes, he is isn't he? I just hope she's not toying with him" Abe said. Animal nodded in agreement, his mouth already full.

"So what are we talking about?" Alex asked sitting beside Animal who immediately slowed down eating.

"Wow, how'd you get him to do that? Grace asked taking a seat beside Abe.

"Get him to do what?" Alex replied.

"How'd you get him to slow down? He usually has cleaned his tray and gone back for seconds by now." Grace said holding back a laugh at the glare Animal sent her. "So Thomas, Carter informed me that you and Alex will me demonstrating the hand to hand techniques" Grace said. Animal got a wicked looking smirk at the news.

"Hey, cut it out" Alex snapped and hit Animal on the arm, when she felt a tail slithering up her leg. Animal just smirked again. After lunch Carter had the students and his team gather outside the cafeteria.

"Now, if everyone would please follow us, we will begin the displays." he said. Carter led the students to a large open driver training area.

"First, officers Sapien will demonstrate pursuit driving." Carter said as Abe climbed into the police cruiser. Animal jumped into the other car. They started their engines and Animal took off in a cloud of smoke and screeching tires. Abe's squad car whopped its siren and gave chase. The students watched in fascination as the two brothers raced around the track, Animal drifting wildly in and out of corners with Abe right behind him. Carter gave the order to end the chase. Abe moved his car into position and hit the corner of the other car in a classic pit move, sending his brother spinning out of control ending the demonstration. Carter then led the students to the Gym where some safety mats had been laid out on the floor.

"Now Officers Sapien and Sota will demonstrate some hand to hand combat." Animal and Alex too their places on the mats.

"Right, now most suspects attack from behind so…" Alex signaled Animal that she was ready. Animal approached from behind and grabbed Alex, holding her against him. Alex knew he could easily over power her, but Animal let her flip him over her shoulder. They did this technique several times, each time Animal held Alex against himself he had to fight his instincts.

Once the students had moved on to the next display, Alex challenged him to a match which involved him fighting back. They started the same as before with Animal grabbing Alex from behind. However when she flipped him over her shoulder, Animal grabbed her with his tail and pulled her to the ground. They wrestled, both fighting for dominance, until Animal pinned Alex to the mat. She struggled against him, which had Animal's already worked-up instincts screaming at him. Animal growled and put a little bit more weight on Alex; only then did she think something was wrong and with no one else in the room she knew she would have to snap him out of it before he lost all control.

"Thomas, Thomas! That's enough, you won." She said trying to push him off. Animal let out a very aroused growl as he pressed himself further against her. Alex became terrified when Animal lower his head and purred into her ear. Suddenly she realized that the emergency beeper was across the room in her bag. Thinking quickly she did the only thing she could, she brought her knee up quickly. Animal howled in pain and crumpled on top of her, as her knee collided with a very sensitive area. Acting fast, Alex pushed Animal off her and scrambled to get the beeper. She just managed to get hold of it as Animal grabbed her, he pulled her back to him and flipped her over. Alex hit the button on her beeper and quickly moved away terrified as Animal collapsed to the floor howling and whimpering in pain. Alex stood up and looked down to realize she was still holding down the button on the beeper. Quickly she released it, Animal slumped down on his side and groaned in pain, cautiously Alex approached him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, staying out of reach. Animal groaned and slowly rolled over to look at her only when he smelled the waves of fear from her did he realize what happened.

"Oh God, I didn't hurt you did I?" he said getting up on his elbows.

"No, you didn't. But you came close."

"I'm am so sorry, I tried, I really did."

"Thankfully Grace gave me this." she said clicking the beeper once.

"Ahh, don't! That hurts!" animal cried, holding his ears

"I think we need to be more careful when it comes to your instincts."

"Grace wants to do some special training to help me control myself." he said, getting to his feet.

"We better catch up with the others" Alex said walking to the door, Animal following close behind.

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><p><strong>the rest of the field trip will be in the next chapter, <strong>


	15. Chapter 15

hi to all my loyal readers, i have been thinking of turning this story into a series of one shots, or continue on with the story line i have lots of good ideas but can't tie them into the story line, please review or pm me and let me know which you all would prefer, one with the most votes wins


	16. Chapter 16

Animal nodded and followed her outside. They caught up with the others at the firing range where Carter was just beginning to explaining what was happening. "Okay, this is the part you've all been waiting for. We will be dividing you up into groups and each group will move from station to station," Carter paused and surveyed the group. "Since there are so many of you we have called in an extra officer, Officer John Bradshaw." Carter motioned to the man standing beside him before breaking the students up into groups of four. "Right so Group One will go with officer's Sota and Abe they will be using the Spectre sub machine gun. Groups Three and Four will be going with West and Thomas. They will be using the SPAZ 12 shot gun. Groups Five and Six will go with Greenlaw and Bradshaw and they will be using the modified Beretta pistols. So officer's if you would collect your gear and groups we can begin."

Ayden was in Group Five so he followed his group to their station. He was given a paper target and told to line up for his turn. He ended up being the last in line. He looked around at the other groups while he waited for his turn. After waiting for a short time it was his turn, so he stood up and officer Bradshaw pinned up his target loaded the magazine and clipped it into the pistol and handed it to Ayden. Ayden was nervous; he had never handled a gun before.

"Come on kid, I haven't got all day." Bradshaw scoffed. Ayden gripped the pistol tightly in both hands and raised it slowly and nervously and squeezed the trigger. The gun went off with a loud bang, Ayden yelped and dropped the pistol as a searing pain shot through his hand. Bradshaw picked up the pistol and roughly handed it back to Ayden. "This gun is worth more than you are. Drop it again and you're dead got it?" Bradshaw threatened.

Ayden raised the gun and fired. He yelped and dropped the gun again. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Bradshaw yelled shoving Ayden back.

"It wasn't me, it was the gun." Ayden tried to explain.

"Don't tell me it was the gun, you useless piece of crap!" Bradshaw roared smacking Ayden across the head hard enough he fell to the ground. Abe looked over just in time to see Bradshaw strike his son.

Abe saw red.

Grace noticed Abe leave his group of students, he had a look on his face that she hadn't seen in a long time, she knew what that meant. She shouted to get Animal's attention. "Grab Abe, NOW!" She yelled.

Animal whipped around to see Abe was choking the life out of Bradshaw. "Oh shit!" he said, rushing to stop Abe. Animal grabbed Abe from behind and tried to pull his hands away from Bradshaw's throat. Bradshaw tried to struggle and yell for help but only a gurgling sound came out. The students and Ayden looked on in horror as Bradshaw began to pass out. "Abe, Abe buddy, let go! He's not worth it!" Animal yelled still trying to get Abe to release. Abe still choking was too full of rage to think clearly, Bradshaw had passed out but he still continued to squeeze harder and harder.

"Dad, stop you're going to kill him!" Ayden yelled. Abe snapped out of his rage black out to the sound of Ayden's voice begging him to stop. Animal took advantage by pulling his brother away from Officer Bradshaw. Animal put Abe into a bear hug and wrapped his tail around him as Abe went nuts. "Animal, let go of me! The bastard hit my son, that isn't going to fly!" Abe shouted trying to break free from his brother.

"For god's sake Grace, get the god damn tranquilizer or something!" Animal shouted. He knew he couldn't hold Abe for much longer. Grace bolted for the medical bay. She opened the cabinet grabbed the pre-packeted syringe filled with tranquilizing liquid and ran back to the range as fast as she could. When she got back, Abe had almost broken free. "Hold him still!" She yelled as she plunged the needled into Abe's leg. Animal struggled with Abe for a few more moments until he went limp and slipped into unconsciousness. Animal pushed his brother off him and got up. Grace hurried forward and checked Bradshaw.

Thankfully, he was still breathing. She called an ambulance as the shocked students looked on. "Thomas, you and Greenlaw take Abe to the medical bay. I'll be there as soon the ambulance takes Bradshaw away." She directed.

"What? Are you insane, did you just see what he did? I'm not suicidal Grace!" Greenlaw argued. "Relax; he's doped to the gills. Grace stabbed him with enough to take down a rhino. Here grab his legs." Animal said as he picked Abe up by the arms to carry him back to the medical bay.

Carefully, they made their way across the compound with a still unconscious Abe in hand. When they reached the bay the carefully placed Abe on the bed and waited for Grace. Grace had rushed off to the med bay once the ambulance took Bradshaw away, leaving the still stunned kids to Alex and the other officers. Grace rushed into the medical bay and asked Greenlaw to return to the tour. "What happened exactly?" Animal asked.

"I have no idea, I looked over to find Abe with that look. I knew shit was about to go down."

"He said Bradshaw hit Ayden, that must have set him off."

"Only one way to find out." She said prepping a needle and injecting it into Abe to awaken him.

Abe stirred and slow began to come to. He moaned loudly and clutched his head as he sat up to find Grace and Abe staring at him. "Where am I?" Abe asked as he tried to stand up only to have Grace shove him back down on the bed.

"You're in the medical bay." Grace said sternly.

"What happened?' Abe asked confused.

"You lost your shit man." Animal blurted out.

"Animal." Grace said interrupting him causing Animal to go quiet. Abe looked away to have all the memories flood back. Bradshaw hitting Ayden. Ayden falling to the ground. The anger overwhelmed him once again and he launched himself off the bed. "Where is the prick?" He yelled loudly as he shot towards the exit. Animal launched himself onto Abe once again and Grace ran to block Abe from the exit.

"Pull yourself together Abraham!" Grace shouted and slapped Abe, stunning him instantly. Abe looked in shock at Grace who was flaring with frustration.

"Sorry." Abe apologized looking embarrassed. Animal released Abe and the three stood there for a few seconds while they all calmed down. "Is Bradshaw okay?" asked Abe softly.

"Safe to say he won't mess with you or Ayden again, but he's going to be fine. Thank god Thomas was there to stop you. You probably would have killed him."

"What did he do?" Animal asked.

"He hit Ayden. I couldn't… I lost it!" Abe said as he suddenly sat down on the medical cot, looking ashamed.

Hey, hey…" Grace said as she placed a hand on Abe's shoulder. "You're his father, of course you'd get upset. You were just protecting him." She consoled him.

"I know, but those kids will be scared for life. I shouldn't have exploded in front of them." Abe said, glancing up at Grace.

"Well you can apologize to them if you wish" Grace said.

"Yeah, I think I should. I owe them and Ayden that at least."

Abe, Animal and Grace made their way out of the medical bay and back to the tour of children for Abe to make a public apology to the students for his earlier actions. Once everyone had settled down properly again, the tour continued on with Abe going back to help Greenlaw with the pistols. He looked around to notice Ayden was missing, he continued to look around to find Ayden sitting on a faraway bench by himself.

"Scott, will you be alright for a minute?" Abe asked as he began to walk away.

"Yeah, all good." Greenlaw nodded as he noticed Ayden sitting alone.

Abe walked over to his son and sat beside him. "Hey buddy, how come you aren't with the others?" Ayden looked at his father, his eyes filling with tears. "It's my fault, I couldn't…. I just couldn't hold the gun… And I'm so…" Ayden said as he began to sob.

"Hey, Hey now kiddo, It's not your fault."

"Yes, it is. I could hold it when the gun went off, it hurt my arms, I had to drop it, but I shouldn't have." Abe frowned and looked down at Ayden's hands, the webbing between his thumb and index fingers were torn from getting caught on the pistols slide as it recoiled. Something he remembered all too well from when he first began shooting. "Ayden, it wasn't your fault. He was using the wrong pistol."

"What?"

"He was supposed to use one of the modified pistols our team use."

"What's the difference though?" Ayden asked.

"Come on, I'll show you." Abe said standing up. Ayden got up and followed his father back to the firing line; they found an empty firing point for both of them. Abe upholstered his pistol and handed it to his son. Ayden looked at the gun with uncertainty. "It's okay, this one won't bite. It's made for a webbed hand." Carefully Ayden raised the gun. It felt a lot better in his hand. Slowly, Ayden aimed the gun down the range. Ayden winced as he pulled the trigger. Expecting pain, Ayden was surprised to only hear a loud bang and the slight jump of the gun as it went off. He kept pulling the trigger until the gun was empty. "Hey, whoa easy there champ." Abe said, taking his gun from Ayden. "Sorry, I couldn't stop."

"Go on kid, join your group and I'll have a look at your hand later." Abe chuckled as Ayden ran off to join his fellow students who had just finished the live firing part of the tour. The teacher gathered the students together and they waited for the bus to arrive to take them back to school. Abe and Grace took Ayden to the medical bay to look at his hands. Ayden sat on the bed as Grace went to get some medical supplies. "Ouch, looks like that hurts kid." Grace said looking at Ayden's hand.

"It does." Ayden whimpered. Grace cleared and stitched the webbing before loosely wrapping it with a bandage. She gave him some pain killers and sent him back to his class. Ayden boarded the bus back to school.

"Hey, is this seat taken?" Ayden looked up to see Marie.

"Uh, no no…" Ayden stammered, moving over for her.

"Thanks." she smiled. Marie sat next to him. The bus took off for the ride back to school. Ayden was looking out the window when he felt something touch his hand. He looked down to see Marie's hand on top of his. When he looked at her face, she smiled. "What happened to your hand?" she asked.

"The um, pistol it tore the webbing between my thumb and index finger." He said taking his hand away from hers.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

"A little, but Grace gave me pain killers, so not so bad now." They sat quietly for a while until Marie spoke.

"So, what are you doing Friday night?"

Ayden looked at her confused. "Um, nothing. Why?"

"Well, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go to the fair."

"Ha, is this a joke? Or are you actually asking ME on a date?

"Maybe" she smiled at him.

"I'll have to check with my dad, but I think it should be all good."

"Great." Marie replied with a smile and Ayden couldn't help but smile back at her.


	17. Chapter 17

**just a short one to keep you all on edge, read and reveiw please**

**Thursday, 2000hrs**

Ayden was busy packing for the weekend with his father.  
>"But Mummy, I wanna go to" Sophie Whined. Following her mother around the house.<br>"Look sweetie, I don't think it's the best idea. Abe and Thomas have never looked after children before."  
>"So? I'll be good I promise."<br>"How about we all them and see if you can visit?" Gail said.  
>Sophie nodded eagerly. Gail picked up the phone, punched in the number and handed the receiver to Sophie who listened intently.<br>"Hello?" Abe's voice spoke through the phone.  
>"Hi Uncle Abe" Sophie sang though the phone.<br>"Sophie sweetie, what can I do for you?" He asked.  
>"Uh, um, when, um, Ayden goes to your house for the um, weekend, can I… Um, come too, PWEASE?" she replied nervously..<br>Abe turned and looked at his brother whose sensitive hearing had heard exactly what the young girl had asked; Animal was vigorously shaking his head no.  
>"Yes, of course sweetie. We'll be happy to have you for the weekend." Abe said smiling into the phone then grinning at Animal. Animal rolled his eyes and flopped down on to the couch.<br>"Really? Thanks Uncle Abe!" Sophie squealed.  
>"Your welcome sweetie, could you please put your mummy on the phone?"<p>

There was rustling on the phone as it was handled over.  
>Sophie flew past her mother upstairs to begin packing her bag.<br>"Hi Abe, I'm guessing by Sophie reaction that's she'll be staying with you this weekend?" Gail laughed.  
>"yes, I need to know what time to pick her up, since Ayden is going to the fair, we'll have a movie marathon and drive Thomas mad with all the singing Animals." Abe laughed.<br>"Sounds like fun, Sophie get's out of school at 2:45, I'll call and let the school know you'll be picking her up."  
>"Alright then, thanks Gail. Goodnight"<br>"Alright, good night Abe."

**Friday Afternoon 2:30pm**

Abe pulled into the parking lot of Sophie's school, he climbed out of the Range Rover and started inside. HE quickly located the little girl's class room and sat where the other parents were waiting for their children. Abe could feel other eyes looking at him as he waited for the bell to sound. Finally it rang and young children came pouring out of the classroom. Abe stayed back until the crowd had dispersed before ducking his head into the room.  
>"UNCLE ABE!" Sophie shouted as she ran over to give him a hug.<br>"Slow down there little one" he laughed as he lifted her up into a bear hug. Abe put Sophie down and grabbed her bag while she skipped out of the room with a smiling Abe following behind. When they both go to the truck, Abe lifted Sophie into the back and strapped her into her seat while placing her bag next to her.  
>Abe climbed into the driver's seat and took off to Ayden's school. Ayden saw his father pull up and hopped into the front seat, greeting his dad then his little sister. Sophie all but tackled Animal when they finally got home.<br>"Hi Mr Kitty!" she giggled jumping on him, Animal had to act fast to catch her, he shook his head as Sophie began to play with ears.  
>"Hey missy, careful with Mr Kitty's ears" he said as he placed the little girl down on the floor.<br>"Hi Sophie" grace said as she emerged from the basement/lab, passing Ayden who was heading to his room.  
>"Hi Aunty Grace, What are we doing tonight?" Sophie smiled.<br>"Well, let's see, how about we microwave some popcorn and have a movie marathon."  
>"Yay, can we watch the Ice Age and Madagascar movies?"<br>"Sounds perfect" smiled Grace.  
>"Oh god, not the talking sloth" Animal rolled his eyes.<br>"You know you sound like Diego." Grace smirked.  
>Animal growled making everyone laugh.<br>"So guppy, who you going to the fair with huh?" Animal asked as Ayden came back down the stairs.  
>"Just a friend" Ayden shrugged.<br>"Would this friend happen to be the girl you were at the training compound?" Grace asked. Ayden looked down sheepishly and blushed.  
>"Ayden's got a girlfriend, Ayden's got a girlfriend!" Sophie teased causing Ayden to go scarlet.<br>"Nice going kid" Animal said as he lightly punched Ayden shoulder, grinning.  
>"So… What's her name?" Grace asked<br>"Marie." Ayden replied.  
>"Aw, our little boy is growing up!" Animal exaggerated jokingly, wiping a non-existent tear away from his face and wrapping Ayden in a bone crushing hug.<br>"Stop it, get off mr kitty." Ayden laughed as he pushed his uncle off.  
>"So how are you getting to the fair? Do you need one of us to take you?" Abe asked.<br>"Nah, Marie said her Dad could take us together at 7:30"  
>"Ok then"<br>Ayden went back up to his room and come back down a few hours later. He sat in the lounge room and watched Ice age 2 while he waited to get picked up.

Everyone jumped at the sound of the door bell.  
>Marie stood surprised in front as Abe opened the door. He was much taller then she thought he was.<br>"Ayden" Abe called over his shoulder.  
>"See ya Dad: Ayden said hurrying past his father.<br>Ayden followed Marie out to where her father was waiting.  
>"Dad, this is Ayden." Marie introduced Ayden who was standing nervously beside her. Marie's father felt his stomach drop at the sight of the blue young man in front of him. What was his daughter doing with a freak like this, but he bit his tounge and drove them to the fair hoping his little girl would come to her senses. Once at the fair, Ayden and Marie walked around aimlessly looking at all the stalls and games. Marie spotted the shooting gallery and lead Ayden over to it, she had seen at the SWAT compound what a good shot he was.<br>"We have a winner" The man running the gallery said handing Ayden a blue stuffed bear.  
>"Here, this is for you." Ayden said handing the stuffed bear to Marie.<br>"Aw, that's so sweet of you." She smiled giving his a kiss and taking his hand. They walked hand in hand around the fair until they realised they were getting looks from people.  
>"Hey Marie" a voice called.<br>Marie turned around and saw her friends hurrying towards her.  
>"Hey Stacey, Jen, Tina. How are you guys?" Marie smiled.<br>"We're great! So are you here on your own or?"  
>"No, no actually I'm here with Ayden."<br>Ayden turned around at the sound of his name.  
>"Whoa, hey can we talk to you for a sec?" they pulled Marie away to the side.<br>"Sure, I'll just be a sec Ayden" she smiled as she walked off with them.  
>"What the hell are you doing with him?" asked Stacey.<br>"What do you mean?" Marie asked confused.  
>"He's a fish freak" Tina said bluntly.<br>"What? No he's not, he's just a little different."  
>"HE is social suicide babe." Jenny spat.<br>"We can't be seen with you if you're going to be with that 'thing'" Stacey shrugged at Marie as the three girls walked off. Marie walked back to Ayden, they walked around the a bit longer together before the relentless stares became too much for Marie and she called her father to pick them up.  
>"So, how was your date?" Grace asked as Ayden walked through his front door after saying goodbye to Marie.<br>"Good" Ayden said as he sat down in the living room with everyone, Madagascar 3 playing in the background.  
>Abe could tell his son was hiding something.<br>"Ayden, what are you hiding? Did something happen?" he asked worried.  
>Ayden looked down, "She kissed me." He said just barely above a whisper.<p> 


	18. Chapter 18

Much later that night Ayden was startled away by the sounds of small rocks hitting the window. He looked out to see what was going on and saw Marie, carefully he snuck down, unlocked the door and showed her to his room.

"What are you doing here?" he asked sitting on his bed next to her

"I came to give you something" she said

"What?"

"This" she told him pushing him back and straddling his lap

Ayden tried to get up only to be pushed back down

"Relax, you'll like this, I promise," she said kissing him and running her hands under his shirt. Ayden wasn't sure what Marie was doing but he liked it.

"See, I told you" she said noticing the bulge growing in Ayden's pants. She moved her hand over it and started massaging it, Ayden's eyes widened for a second before he let out a strangled moan earning him a smirk from his partner. Marie made short work of removing both their shirts and her bra, she took his trembling hands and placed them on her boobs, she moved his hands in circles massaging gently showing him what to do, and Ayden began to squirm as his pants became uncomfortably tight. Marie slid down Aydens body taking his pants off as she did, releasing his achingly hard erection. Marie stared in awe at how big he was, almost 10 inches, she kissed the tip making it twitch, slowly she started stroking his length, he gasped when she swiped her thumb over the sensitive head. Suddenly Ayden sat up and pulled her hands away.

"What's wrong?"

Ayden blushed heavily

"Oh getting a little too much?"

Ayden nodded still embarrassed

"Well then we should move things along then" she smirked removing her underwear. Marie crawled on top of Ayden and helped guide him into her, they both moaned as Ayden's length slid into her. They stilled for a moment letting Marie's body adjust to his size, Marie slowly started moving up and down soft sounds of pleasure escaping them both. Instinct suddenly overtook Ayden and he flipped them over so he was on top without pulling out, he started thrusting building up speed going harder and harder a low growl coming from him until his body suddenly tensed up and spasmed, with a gasp Ayden spilled his seed into the young woman under him and collapsed to the side laying next to her.

"How was it?" she asked giggling at his dazed look

"wow" was all he could manage closing his eyes for a moment as Marie started dressing, he didn't see her take a picture of him sprawled out naked with her phone, after a few minutes he put some pants on and lead Marie back down to the door, they kissed goodnight and Ayden watched Marie walk down the drive before closing the door and bumping into his uncle.

"Your friend came back?" he asked

"Oh um um yes she forgot something" Ayden tried to cover

"Sure forgot something, how was it?"

"Um how was what?"

"Guppy these things aren't just to make me look pretty, they hear everything" Animal said pointing to his ears. Ayden blushed and tried to get past his uncle.

"Go on back to bed, I ain't going to tell anyone.


	19. Chapter 19

**just a short one this time will put the next half up in a couple days**

* * *

><p>Monday, 8:30 am<p>

Aydens school

Ayden walked into school like any other Monday morning, but today something didn't feel right, he was getting strange looks from a few students. He spotted Marie, she was chatting and showing her friends something on her phone, he walked over and saw what it was they were all giggling about.

"What is this?, why would you do something like this? He asked d as her friends moved away

"Well they wouldn't have believed me if I didn't how them she said

"You need to get rid of it now" he told her

"Ok fine" she sighed

The first two periods of the day went past quickly. It had been a rather good day except for the photo earlier. Ayden had gym next, looking it wasn't his favorite, looking the way he did he was often teased or thrown into the girls locker room. He walked into the boys locker room expecting the usual teasing instead all the guys were looking at a phone laughing. Ayden moved closer and saw that had sent the picture of him to Ray the captain of the football team.

"Hey gimmie that" Ayden shouted making a grab for the phone, only to be held back by two much larger boys.

"Ah ah, this is going to everyone in school"

"No please" Ayden begged

"Begging like a little bitch, lets treat him like a bitch" Ray said kicking Ayden in the ribs, Ray and the others beat and threw him in the girls locker room.

"This is where bitches like you belong" one boy said as they tossed him in. Ayden sat on the floor of the girls locker room he didn't want to live like this anymore, the humiliation and regular beatings had become too much, looking around he spied a skipping rope, with tears stinging hi eyes he tied one end into a makeshift noose. He found a chair, stood on it and tied the other end to some exposed pipes, crying he placed the noose around his neck and stepped off.

* * *

><p><strong>Mwhahahahaha cliff hanger bring on the upset and devastated reviewers <strong>


	20. Chapter 20

Kasey and Madison walked into the girls locker room just in time to see Ayden feet stop kicking.

"Ayden" she shrieked wrapping her arms around his legs. "Quick Maddie get help" she yelled struggling to lift Ayden's dead weight. Maddie bolted from the room, seconds later coach Reynolds Burst in and lifted Ayden so Kasey could stand on the chair and remove the rope from Ayden's neck, while Maddie was on the phone to 911. The coach laid Ayden on the floor and checked his breathing and pulse.

" he's still breathing" he told Kasey who was sitting beside him crying, the ambulance arrived and took Ayden away, Kasey rode in the ambulance with Ayden.

"is there anyone I can call for you dear?" a kind looking elderly nurse asked. Kasey wrote down both Abe and Gail's phone numbers.

SWAT training compound.

"Abe Abe you got a call, it's the hospital" Grace said hurrying to hand him the phone

"Hello" he said bringing the phone to his ear

"Is this Mr. Sapien ?" An elderly female voice asked

"Yes"

" Mr. sapien I regret to inform you that your son was bought into the hospital by ambulance"

"What, what happened, is he ok, what hospital?" Abe asked fear evident in his voice

" ST Josephs"

"Thank you Abe said hanging up rushing to the car animal and Grace right behind him. When Abe, Animal and Grace arrived at the hospital Gail and mike were already there, Sophie had been left with a friend.

"What happened?" Abe asked

"We don't know, the doctor is in with him now" Mike said. After what seemed like forever the doctor along with Kasey emerged from the curtained off area.

"How is he, what happened?" The concerned parents asked rushing the doctor

"Firstly he is ok physically, however I am a bit concerned about Ayden's mental state, and Kasey tells me they found him trying to hang himself." The doctor told them

"Why would he do something like that?" Gail asked

"Well that I'm not sure of, that's something you'll have to ask him when he wakes up" with that the doctor let allowing the family to wait around the bed for Ayden to wake up. No one saw the two government agents watching them.

BPRD HQ

Manning's office

Manning picked up the ringing phone from his desk. "Hello"

"Sir we have located the boy but there is a problem" agent Benny said

"What is it?" manning asked he could feel a headache coming on

"Dr Augustine and the other two have found him first and are here" Agent Benny told him

"Keep a visual on the boy I'll be on the next flight, I'll handle this personally.


	21. Chapter 22

The family had been waiting many hours in conserve with Ayden starting to stir awake. Ayden slowly came back to consciousness. Opening his eyes and looking into the worried faces of his family. Guilt and shame washed over him.

"Ayden what happened, what caused you to do something like this?" Gail asked

"I think this maybe why." Kasey said showing everyone her phone.

"What the hell? Who took this, when did they take it?" Gail asked anger in her voice.

"It was Marie. She tricked me" Ayden said quietly from the hospital bed his voice horse and rough.

"Who?" Gail asked

"She's a girl he met" Grace said making the bed sit up so Ayden was more comfortable.

"Wait how did she get a photo of you naked?

"She came back to the house after you all went to bed the other night, she, she did things to me, she touched me." Ayden told them looking miserable, as he started to weep.

" Hey, hey the main thing is that your ok, I can get the picture taken down very easily, and the principal has been organizing a mandatory anti bullying talk with the other students , and instituting a zero tolerance policy for any one bulling" Grace tried to comfort the teen.

"Yes the important thing is for you to get better so you can come home." Mike said

Suddenly there was knocking at the door. Gail moved to open the door. Everyone looked to the door as it opened revealing director Tom Manning flanked by two agents in matching black suits.

"What the hell do you want?" Animal said form the corner

"You 3 outside I'd like to have a word" Manning replied pointing to Abe, Animal, and Grace.

The 3 went outside and shut the door,

"Okay what do you want? Grace asked

"I have come to take the boy back to the B.P.R.D."

"Like hell you have, over my dead body" Animal all but shouted

"He has to come back with us"

"No he doesn't "Grace piped in

"He doesn't belong here this incident proves it." Manning countered

"I am his father he belongs with me all this proves is that he is an emotional teenager just like any other boy his age." Abe yelled at the balding man who was starting to second guess the idea of trying to take the boy from Abe.

"Manning you have no grounds for taking him he is healthy and well looked after" Grace informed him

"If you touch my son I will hunt you down and we both know what I am capable of. Am I clear?" Abe said to Manning who was now covering from the enraged icthio sapien

"He can remain here with you but we will be keeping an eye on him" with that Manning and his goons left.

Abe and the others went back into the room and sat down Abe kneaded his forehead trying to will away the massive headache. Gail noticed the as worries

"Look Ayden will be in here a couple days and there no sense in all of us being here all the time how about mike and I take the first shift and you guys can take tomorrows "she said

Abe decided that it would be a good idea he'd hate to admit it but he needed a drink he only ever resorted to drinking when he couldn't handle anymore. He thanked Gail and Mike and told Ayden he'd be back tomorrow.

A few hours later the stress has gotten to Abe and he pulled his jacket on and headed out the door. Some hours later animal was woken by his phone's annoying ring tone.

"Hello" he answered groggy from sleep

"Thomas I need you to come pick me up?" Abe slurred

Animal got the address and climbed in his truck. He was a little confused when he arrived at the address, he was expecting a bar of some kind instead it was a random apartment building. Abe straggled into the truck, when they got home animal helped Abe out of the truck and up to his room. Once in the room animal tried to help, giggling Abe get his jacket off. Abe playfully grabbed animal in a bear hug before collapsing on the bed. Animal was about to leave when he found something on the floor, he figured it fell out of Abe's jacket only after picking it up did he realize it was a used condom wrapper. Animal tossed it in the trash making sure it was hidden, his brother trusted him a few year ago with one of his biggest secrets and he had no intention on breaking that trust.


End file.
